Use By Radio Amateurs
Today, individual radio amateurs and organizations around the world recognize and use Maidenhead locators. Maidenhead locators are used as part of the formulas for scoring in many VHF amateur radio contests. Grid locators are also the basis of earning many awards like the American Radio Relay League's VHF/UHF Century Club, URE TTLOC, etc. operating award.
In IARU Region 1 rules, VHF distance calculations are carried out between Maidenhead subsquare centers assuming a spherical Earth. This results in a small error in distance, but makes calculations simpler and, given the inherent imprecision in the used input data, it is not the biggest error source.
Read more about this topic: Maidenhead Locator System
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