This morning began like any other. I logged in, checked my email, and searched wsprnet.org for WSPR spots of my beacon, to see if any unusual callsigns have shown up overnight. I saw that ZL3IN managed to spot me overnight (I’ve gotten him a few times), but I also saw WA2YUN, reporting me from grid square RK39hh. RK39hh? Where the heck is that?
It turns out it’s Wake Island.
It’s a tiny coral atoll in the Pacific, only a couple miles across, and has played an interesting role in the history of the United States, particularly during the Second World War. I find it very cool that Colin is over there, running a WSPR listener.
| Timestamp | Call | MHz | SNR | Drift | Grid | Pwr | Reporter | RGrid | km | az |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-02-13 10:04 | K6HX | 10.140133 | -33 | 0 | CM87ux | 2 | WA2YUN | RK39hh | 7072 | 275 |
| 2009-02-13 09:56 | K6HX | 10.140133 | -23 | 0 | CM87ux | 2 | WA2YUN | RK39hh | 7072 | 275 |
| 2009-02-13 09:40 | K6HX | 10.140133 | -24 | 0 | CM87ux | 2 | WA2YUN | RK39hh | 7072 | 275 |
| 2009-02-13 09:32 | K6HX | 10.140133 | -21 | 0 | CM87ux | 2 | WA2YUN | RK39hh | 7072 | 275 |
| 2009-02-13 08:04 | K6HX | 10.140133 | -28 | 0 | CM87ux | 2 | WA2YUN | RK39hh | 7072 | 275 |
| 2009-02-13 07:56 | K6HX | 10.140133 | -32 | 0 | CM87ux | 2 | WA2YUN | RK39hh | 7072 | 275 |
Congratulations on the spots. You wouldn’t know about a way to look up Maidenhead coordinates in Google Maps?
Why yes, I would.
Try this link. Very nice.
My own efforst are more crude. The static map that i linked above was created by finding the latitude/longitude using my own maidenhead code written in Python, and then using the Google Static Maps API to make the picture.
Great, thanks! That one works very well. I especially like the borders it puts on the gridsquare.
It would be cool if Google Maps supported Maidenhead natively, though. Maybe I should put in a feature request…
Here’s another:
http://qth.map.googlepages.com
It will allow you to put your own gridsqare and the DX one in for distance and heading between the two points.
See the link at the bottom to show how to embed your gridsquare to be the default.
73
Ted
Got it. Took a little under 5 minutes.