Editing Maidenhead Locator System (section)

==History==
[[Amateur radio]] [[contesting|contests]] on [[VHF]] and [[UHF]] are often scored based on the distance of [[Contact (amateur radio)|contact]]s, typically 1 point per kilometre,<ref name="SM5AGM-Maidenhead">{{Cite web |title=The Locator System |first=Folke, SM5AGM |last=Rosvall |website=jonit.com |url=http://www.jonit.com/fieldlist/maidenhead.htm |access-date=2017-01-30}}</ref> so there is a need for amateurs to exchange their locations over the air. To facilitate this, following the growth of the sport in the 1950s, the German [[QRA locator]] system was adopted in 1959.<ref name=QRZ.RU-Locator_System/> The QRA locator system was limited to describing European coordinates, and by the mid-1970s there was growing need for a global locator system.<ref name=SM5AGM-Maidenhead/>

By the time of their April&nbsp;1980 meeting, in [[Maidenhead, England|Maidenhead]], England, the VHF Working Group had received twenty different proposals to replace the QRA locator grid. That devised by John Morris (G4ANB) was deemed to be the best.<ref name=SM5AGM-Maidenhead/>

At the 1999 [[International Amateur Radio Union|IARU]] Conference in Lillehammer it was decided that the latitude and longitude to be used as a reference for the determining of locators should be based on the [[World Geodetic System|World Geodetic System 1984]] (WGS-84).<ref name=QRZ.RU-Locator_System>
{{cite web
 |title=The Locator System
 |website=qrz.ru
 |url=http://www.qrz.ru/vhf/qth_h.pdf
 |access-date=2014-07-13
}}
</ref>