In this section:

• Basic Facts about QRZ Coordinate Data
• About Grid Squares
• How to modify or correct the information shown
• About Counties

For USA amateurs, the QRZ coordinate information has been obtained from the US Post Office's ZipCode database. All of the hams listed in a given Zip Code will therefore have the same coordinates listed. If you want greater precision on your individual listing, you can enter in your own data.

We don't have every zip code on file and so for some, the coordinates remain blank. You can edit these too.

About Grid Squares

By default, grid squares are determined directly from the lat/lon coordinates using a mathematical function. This means that if your grid square is incorrect then so are your lat/lon coordinates. Our system can determine a grid square from any lat/lon pair, however it cannot do the opposite.

If your grid square is listed incorrectly then you may either enter it in manually (after turning off the "calculate grid automatically" checkbox), or, you may input more accurate lat/lon coordinates and let the system calculate the correct grid square for you.

How to input new Coordinates

Lat/lon coordinates can be expressed in a few different ways. The two ways most commonly used are Degrees, Minutes and Seconds (DMS) and Decimal Degrees. The QRZ update window accepts either.

In geographic coordinates, longitudes runs from 0 to 180 degrees in either an East or West direction and lattitudes run from 0 to 90 degrees in either a North or South direction. 90 Degrees North is the North Pole. 90 degrees South is the South Pole, etc. On GPS units, north lattitudes are represented as positive numbers while south lattitudes are prefixed with a minus sign. Simularly, east longitudes are positive and west is negative.

Degrees of longitude at the equator are spaced approximately 60 miles apart, narrowing towards the poles. Simularly, degrees of lattitude are also some distance apart. To get more precision, degrees of both lattitude and longitude may be divided into smaller increments known as minutes and seconds. Like a clock, there are 60 minutes to one degree and there are 60 seconds to one minute. This gives a precision of about 1/60 of one mile, which, is close enough for DX work.

Various online, digital, and GPS maps list degrees by their decimal fraction such as 34.5 degrees. Put another way, 34.5 degrees is equal to 34 degrees, 30 minutes, 0 seconds. Incidentally, minutes is abbreviated with a tick (') and seconds with two ticks ("). So, the above could have been written as 34° 30' 0"

I've already given you enough of the variables to solve the math equation to convert any decmial degree position into it's DMS value. Fortunately, QRZ will save you the trouble and do the math for you.

Degrees, Minutes and Seconds vs. Decimal Degrees
In the data entry form, there are three boxes, one for Degrees, one for Minutes and one for Seconds. If you have your position in DMS, then just input it accordingly. If the data you have is in decimal degrees, then input this number (including the decimal point and all the digits tha follow) into the degrees box and make sure that both the minutes and seconds boxes are left blank. QRZ will compute the values when you click on Update.

Remember that if the digital number is negative, set the longitude to West, or the lattitude to South.

About Counties

Like grid squares, counties are determined by Zip Codes. This causes problems because some Zip Codes overlay more than one county (It's a federal thing). Since there is no way for us to know or figure out when this condition exists, we leave it up to you to adjust the county shown if it is incorrect. Once you adjust it, it will stay that way. If you change your callsign, you may have to come back and readjust it since we don't carry this information forward on a callsign change.

Finally, if you are having continued difficulty, please send email to The QRZ Editor.

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