Message-ID: <003d01c51e5a$7da54440$47540150@p2300>
From: "captbrian" <captbrian@ukonline.co.uk>
To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org
References: <200502271724500058.0418698B@mail.zetnet.co.uk><005001c51cf8$524d6c40$10b80150@p2300> <200502281113330523.07EADBD4@mail.zetnet.co.uk> <007201c51d8c$ab993a60$37b80150@p2300> <004101c51e54$11e9fa80$2101a8c0@AUG2004>
Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2005 12:30:44 -0000
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Subject: LF: Re: Locators
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That is an interesting historical account but you fail to tell us the
reasons advanced for not using Lat. Long. ie trigonometrical definitions on
a true curved surface rather than  draughtsman drawn squares on a
draughtsman drawn simulation on a flat sheet of paper

G3GVB


----- Original Message -----
From: Walter Blanchard <blanch@pncl.co.uk>
To: <rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2005 11:44 AM
Subject: LF: Locators


> In 1968 I had a long-running correspondence with the RSGB over the IARU
> adoption of what was then the "QRA Locator"; later to become the
> "Maidenhead" locator.  QRA was first proposed for amateur use by a Czech
> amateur OK1VR in 1958 and was subsequently adopted by amateurs in all the
> Warsaw Pact countries. I believe it originated in a USSR military locator
> system already well understood by them. The Western (NATO) counterpart was
> the GEOREF system which I described in an RSGB Bulletin article in 1968.
The
> RSGB VHF committee at the time were, somewhat amazingly, unaware of GEOREF
> and thought that QRA was a totally amateur invention. When I started
pushing
> for GEOREF, a more logical, accurate and simpler system, I was more or
less
> told to keep quiet and stop rocking the boat since the IARU were going for
> QRA and that was that. The rest, as they say, is history.  I forecast at
the
> time that QRA would never have the accuracy required for accurate contest
> scoring and that's why Maidenhead has become so needlessly complicated. We
> could also have gone for the well-established world-wide UTM grid but I
> suppose that would have been too easy. It's all too late to do anything
now,
> of course, but I have never met a professional geodesist who understands
why
> we need Maidenhead. .
>
> Walter G3JKV.
>
>
>
>
>