Grid Square Thoughts

[KR2J at aol.com]

This grid square discussion is something that I have been considering for
quite a while
based on the "meaninglessness" of the current exchanges in DX and other
contests and also for HF operating awards.  I realize that a lot of folks
don't think
anything is wrong with the way things are now, but I think utilizing grid
squares makes a lot of sense.

The insanity of what is and what is not a DXCC country has always bothered me
and I think that the controversy of these often heated discussions would be
eliminated if grid squares were the defining elements instead of the
political boundary, separate administration, distance from mainland, time
above sea level,
and other ad infinitum rules.  I think the goal of working all grid squares
on the Earth
would be virtually impossible and therefore the reccuring discussions of
"re-starting"
DXCC would be moot.  In addition, it wouldn't matter what political
standing a grid square would have since it would always be the same grid
square regardless of what political entity would have dominion over it.

Could you imagine ?
" What's your 'GSCC' total up to now, Kelsoe ? "
" Oh somewhere around 600 last count, Claude ".

Sure, there'd be a lot of opposition or reluctance to this.
What? Change the status quo ?  What a thought!

One real problem is that most don't have clue what their grid square is and
many don't even know what a grid square is.  I think this could be resolved
by educating people on how to determine what their grid square is.  It's
actually fairly easy to do if you have access to a map that indicates your
latitude and longitude.  With all this GPS stuff going on, this should become
moot in the next few years.

As far as contests go, if Grid Squares were to be used as multipliers,
it would change the scores a lot to be sure.  But so what ?  There'd be new
records set, and after a few years we'd be comfortable with it.  We'd have a
meaningful exchange and if you got it wrong, you might lose a multiplier.  I
guess that we might have people actually copying the exchange instead of
letting the computer do it for them.  An improvement in my opinion.

Maybe, at first, the grid could just be used in the exchange but not as a
multiplier in for example ARRL DX since the power is really meaningless - ie.
not a
multiplier.  Of course, we in the U.S. could continue sending our state as it
is a
multiplier for DX.  Eventually, we could send grid as well.  I don't think
this would change 
the "flavor" of the ARRL DX contest, other than providing another method of
determining
who the pileup is for - as in CQWW when you hear the zone, you know
approximately
where the station is.

What do you folks think ?

73,
Bob Naumann
KR2J at AOL.com