QRA locator

The QRA locator, also called QTH locator in some publications, is an obsolete geographic coordinate system used by amateur radio operators in Europe before the introduction of the Maidenhead Locator System. As a radio transmitter or receiver location system the QRA locator is considered defunct, but may be found in many older documents.

History

The QRA locator system in the 4-character format was introduced at a meeting of the VHF Working Group in The Hague in October 1959. The QRA locator was further developed with the addition of the fifth character at the Region 1 Conference in Malmö (1963).

The QRA locator was officially adopted by IARU Region 1 in 1966 and was renamed "QTH-locator" a year later.[1]

Description

QRA locator references consist of a string of two capital letters, two numerical digits and one lower case letter, e.g. FG32c.

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70
71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80
h a b
g j c
f e d

With this system, a location at 52° 26' 12" N - 0° 13' 6"E would have a QRA locator reference AM52g.

Disadvantages

The QRA locator system has two disadvantages, which led to its replacement by the current Maidenhead system:

References

  1. "The Locator System" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-01-05.
  2. R. J. Eckersley, G4FTJ (1985). Amateur Radio Operating Manual (third edition). Potters bar, UK: Radio Society of Great Britain. p. 64. ISBN 0-900612-69-X.

See also

European QRA locator map

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