BasicB-002-009-003
While making a contact in a VHF contest, the other operator asks for your grid square. What information is requested?
D
Answer
Licensing, station identification, and operation
Type
A
The number of contacts you have made
B
Your antenna azimuth stated in compass degrees
C
The elevation of your station in thirty-metre increments
D
Your location expressed as a 4 or 6-character code
Answer Notes
In amateur radio, a "grid square" refers to the Maidenhead Locator System. This system compresses latitude and longitude coordinates into a concise 4- or 6-character alphanumeric code (for example, FN25 or FN25di) to easily communicate a station's location globally.
Grid squares are especially popular in VHF/UHF contesting and on digital modes, where operators earn points or awards based on the number of unique grid squares they contact. It provides a quick and standardized way to exchange geographic locations without needing to read out long strings of exact coordinates over the air.
The distractors refer to contact counts, antenna azimuths, or station elevation. While these are valid pieces of information sometimes exchanged in specific contexts, the specific term "grid square" always denotes this universal location code.
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A directional antenna pointed in the long-path direction to another station is generally oriented how many degrees from its short-path heading?