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The ARRL International Grid Chase is underway! Join in on our newest year-long operating event!



Bart Jahnke, W9JJ, ARRL Contest Branch Manager

[as announced in December 2017 QST, page 92]



You may not know this, but your station is in a Maidenhead grid square. The entire world is divided into thousands of these 1° latitude × 2° longitude squares, each one with a unique designation. They're all part of a geographic location system adopted in the 1980s at a meeting of the VHF Working Group in Maidenhead, England.

Unless you are a VHF enthusiast, this nugget of information may not mean much. But at 0000 UTC on January 1, 2018, the global Amateur Radio community came alive with the exchange of grid squares.

For more information on grid squares see http://www.arrl.org/grid-squares

Get in the Chase

The objective of the ARRL International Grid Chase is simple: Work stations in as many grid squares as possible and upload your log data to ARRL's Logbook of The World (LoTW). If you are not currently registered with Logbook of The World, this is a good reason to get started. Go to https://lotw.arrl.org/lotw-help/getting-started/. Registration and uploading are free. When registering and setting up your Station Location, be sure your TQSL Station Location includes your Grid Square!



Every new grid square contact confirmed through LoTW counts toward your monthly total, so you have an incentive to start the chase as soon as you ring in the New Year.



Just turn on your radio and start calling "CQ Grid Chase," or listen for others doing the same. Make the contact, enter it into your log, and you're on to the next (see the sidebar, "Tips for the Chase").

At the end of each month, your totals on the Grid Chase leader board will reset to zero. Fear not, though. The online scoring system will maintain your monthly totals for a grand total at the end of the year, when an annual summary will be released (as of January 10, 2019, the Leaderboad now shows Total-Year January 1, 2018, through December 31, 2018, Cumulative Totals).

For the monthly competitions, the cutoff for uploading logs to LoTW is 2359 UTC on the 10th of the next month. For example, January logs were cutoff at 2359 UTC on February 10, 2018.

The ARRL International Grid Chase is open to all amateurs, regardless of location or license class. Any operating mode is eligible as well as every band, except 60 meters. You'll find the complete rules at www.arrl.org/aigc2018.

How Will Scoring Work?

On a monthly basis, participants earn "points" for new grids worked. 1 point is earned for each NEW grid square confirmed (via LoTW) for each band and mode combination (see Rules paragraphs 3 and 4 below). Each band from 2200 meters to Light (excepting 60 meters) can be used to make a contact on each of the three event modes (CW, Phone [eg SSB, AM, FM, etc|, and Digital {all digital modes}).

Example: In January 2018, W9JJ contacts W1AW (grid FN31) on each of the 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter bands on CW and earns 5 FN31 CW points (1 point per band using CW); he then contacts W1AW (grid FN31) on each of the 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter bands this time on SSB and earns 5 FN31 SSB points (1 point per band using SSB); he also contacts NJ1Q (grid FN31) on SSB on 17, 12 and 10 meters but earns only 2 FN31 SSB points (as he had already contacted grid FN31 on 10 meter SSB by previously contacting W1AW in FN31); he then contacts N9HF (grid EL99) on SSB on 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meters and earns another 5 (this time EL99) SSB points (1 point per band using SSB); and finally contacts KD9NH (grid EN44) on JT65 Digital mode on 2 meters and on 70 centimeter EME earning 2 (this time EN44) Digital points (1 point per band using Digital); in total W9JJ earned 19 grid points for January.

W9JJ can repeat any or all of these contacts in February or the months to follow. By working new stations each month, the points continue to grow. Again, you can rework each grid by band and by mode every month.

The scores shown in each user's dashboard will reflect LoTW confirmations to date; scores for past months will be updated as LoTW confirmations arrive.

After the 12 month event has concluded, monthly totals will tallied for a cumulative year-end score (tallied by band, and by mode, or total of both). Also, unique grids worked by band and mode will be be tallied at year end.

Results: Where can I find the Leader Board? Go Here

Where can I find the Grid Totals? Go Here



But What's My Grid Square?

Determining your grid square is easy. David Levine, K2DSL, has a great online calculator at www.levinecentral.com/ham/grid_square.php. Just enter a postal address, zip code, or even a call sign, and David's site will tell you the grid square for that location.

For example, enter "W1AW" and the site will return "FN31pr." The letters "pr" designate the grid square field, but you won't need that for the Chase. Just FN31 will do.

The ARRL online store (www.arrl.org/shop) also offers grid square maps of the US and Canada, as well as a grid square atlas of the entire world.

Plenty of Pileups

Figure 1 — Grid square FN51 is mostly salt water, except for a narrow strip of land along the "sole" of Cape Cod and a portion of southeastern Nantucket Island. This image is taken from the ARRL Amateur Radio Map of North America, available at www.arrl.org/shop.

Some grid squares have thousands of amateurs in residence, but others have only a few, or none. Those "rare" grid squares will be hot properties in 2018, and hams operating from those locations can expect serious pileups.

Of course, nothing prevents you from hopping into your car and driving to a grid square where you are the only amateur on the air. There are some grid squares in coastal areas, for example, where most of the territory is comprised of water. Look at Figure 1 and notice that grid square FN51 is mostly in the Atlantic Ocean, except for a relatively narrow strip along the "sole" of Cape Cod and a small portion of southeastern Nantucket Island.

If you're taking to the road, some vehicular GPS systems will display grid square locations. You can also use apps for your smartphone or tablet, such as Ham Square (iPhone, iPad) or HamGPS (Android).

However you play it, the ARRL International Grid Chase is going to be big. By the time you read this, "opening day" will be less than 2 months away. Better sign up with Logbook of The World (if you haven't already) and prepare your gear!

Questions? E-mail contests@arrl.org.

Tips for the Chase