Welcome to WG7J's GridMapper.
What's new?

This page allows you to upload an Amateur Radio ADIF format log file, and in return we will graph all the worked grid squares in that log file for you! We can also show your FFMA award progress.

You can choose to map the grids on a Google Map browser page, or receive a KML download file that can be displayed in Google Earth (or any other KML rendering software).

When you upload you can choose to graph known grids for all contacts (the default), or select by band or year, or both. The map will be centered around your station location if found, with the home grid shown in blue (zoom in to see this), and a marker indicating that location.

By default, confirmed grids are shown with a green border, and an opaque green color. Logged, but not confirmed grids are shown with a red border, and an opaque red color. For FFMA tracking, non-worked grids are shown in yellow.

On the browser Google Maps display, when you click on a worked grid, a balloon will show up listing the grid name and the stations you worked in that grid. You can choose to have this happen on mouse-over of the grid.

You can select to show an outline of the major grids, eg. the square that is "DM". This gives you an idea of grid borders. If you select the "geodesic" option, you may be suprised at the curved grid outlines!

Clicking anywhere outside worked grids will show you the 6-character Grid Square for that location (thanks to code by F6FVY)

Note for Google Maps (not kml): there is a daily quota of 750 maps maximum for all users of GridMapper. This is to avoid charges now that Google bills for large usage of the Google Maps Javascript API.

Suggestions, comments or questions ?

Please contact the author via email: wg7j at arrl dot net

Frequently Asked Questions:

What is new in this version of GridMapper?
You can find an ever so brief description of the various versions of GridMapper here.

Why did you write GridMapper?
I wrote GridMapper because I wanted to find a way to digitally track the grids I worked on 6m, and I was curious about how to use the Google Maps tool. Every Sporadic-E season I was using a printout of the US Grid Map to color in the worked grids. Once I had the thought that it would be nice to be able to show them on a Google Map display in a browser, the plan came together. GridMapper was written in PHP and Javascript, using the Google Map API v.3

How can I print my GridMapper output?
Printing may work in many browsers. However, in some it just does not work well. This is very difficult to troubleshoot, as there are just too many factors. However, I would recommend doing a screen shot or capture, and then print the resulting image file. Eg. on Windows, you can use the Snipping Tool; on a Mac use Shift-Command-4, and move the area to where you want it...

What is the FFMA Award ?
The Fred Fish Memorial Award is awarded when you have confirmed working all 488 grids in the contiguous USA on 6m. Enabling this option will automatically filter out 6m contacts only, and only show grids that fall in the 488 grids in the FFMA award! Worked and confirmed gridsquares will show as usual, while missing grids will show as yellow (you can choose the colors in the upload form). This will assist you in figuring out your FFMA award progress. Additionally, some aggregate data will be logged about each FFMA grid, so what we can derive some per-grid QSO statistics. The ARRL has more information on the FFMA award.

What are the FFMA Statistics?
GridMapper keeps accumulative statistics of FFMA adif uploads. For all 488 grids, we track how many times they are worked, and confirmed, accumulatively, and for each year that we have FFMA QSOs for. We show the results in two formats.

The map shows how frequently each grid is worked or confirmed, for a specific year (not uploads, but QSO year), or for all uploaded data. This map is in a weather-map like format, with difficult grids in colder colors, and more frequently confirmed or worked grids in warmer colors.

The list displays a table of all FFMA grids, with the number of worked and confirmed contacts that have been uploaded. Again, you can show all data, or just a specific year for which we have found QSOs. This may help in showing how rare or common a grid is. The output can be sorted on either contact type, and by order, simply by clicking on the appropriate column header.

Please note that we have no way of knowing how often the same ADIF file is uploaded, so the data may be heavily skewed! Even so, we hope this is at least an interesting, if not useful, page.

Note: accumulative data for all years is for uploads after 29 August 2012, when v1.1.1 was released.
Per-Year FFMA statistics are for uploads after 8 January 2014, when v1.3 was released. Note however that you can see previous years of stats, once users have uploaded FFMA check QSOs from those years!

What is the Propagation option?
If selected, we will only use contacts that have the ADIF propagation mode field ("prop_mode") set to the selected mode, eg. Satellite (ie. a value of "SAT"). Note that if this is selected, and the "prop_mode" field is not present, this means nothing will be shown! The FFMA option will still be functional, so e.g. you can see award progress using Satellite-only contacts. Note this is a terrible example, as we are not aware of any satellites with 6m ☺

What is the Callsign search link ?
Here you can select a callsign search site to use in the list of worked station in each grid. If selected, when you click on the grid, the popup text will have the worked callsigns as a clickable link providing a search query into the selected callsign database. Currently we support the QRZ, HamCall, AE7Q, HamData and QRZCQ sites. Note that for detailed information, you will need to provide your own login information for these services. Note: Google Earth appears to have problems with displaying the QRZ.com page content properly inside the application!

Can I pre-set some of the output options, such as grid colors ?
Yes, you can pre-select several output options from the URL line, using parameters.

If you call Gridmapper with the following options, the output colors will be pre-selected in the form. You can bookmark the link for future use, without having to fill in the form again.

The parameters are:

confirmedcolor=00d600 - this set the color for confirmed grids
workedcolor=db0000 - this sets the color for worked, but not confirmed, grids
missingcolor=fafa00 - this sets the color for missing FFMA grids (if selected)
supercolor=3d3d3d - this sets the color for 'super' grids, eg. "CN"

Eg. if you call gridmapper like below, by editing the url line, the colors for worked and confirmed grids will be set (note the values below are the defaults).
You can change per your needs, and then bookmark:

     http://wg7j.reinalda.net/gridmapper/gridmapper.php?confirmedcolor=00d600&workedcolor=db0000

What is the stats page ?
GridMapper keeps some statistics on usage, as displayed here.

What is the Mapped Grid Stats page ?
GridMapper keeps some accumulative (anonymous) statistics for all grids mapped. We track how many times they are worked, and confirmed.

The map shows how frequently each grid is worked or confirmed, for all uploaded data. This map is in a weather-map like format, with difficult grids in colder colors, and more frequently confirmed or worked grids in warmer colors.

Please note that we have no way of knowing how often the same ADIF file is uploaded, so the data may be heavily skewed! Even so, we hope this is at least an interesting, if not useful, page.

Note: accumulative data for all grids is for uploads after 1 May 2014, when v1.4 was released.

Can you such-and-so feature ?
Please send an email to the address listed above, and we will look at it. Here is list of things we are considering implementing.

What logging software is supported?
Any logging software that allows you to create or export a file in ADIF v2 format can be used. Most ham logging applications can do this nowadays.

Do you store the uploaded log files?
No, uploaded files are not permanently stored. Once the resulting web page has been sent to your browser, the data file is deleted. We do log a few things anonymously for our usage statistics (such as the number of QSOs and grids found, logging software, etc.)

How do you find my station location?
This is based on the ADIF field MY_GRIDSQUARE. We calculate the center of this grid, and use that as the center of the map display. If no home gridsquare is found, the map will be centered on the geographical center of the contiguous US (somewhere in Kansas)! Please note that only the first home grid found is used. GridMapper cannot currently support multiple operators/stations in one ADIF file.

How do you find my station callsign?
This is based on the ADIF field STATION_CALLSIGN. We use this as the text for the marker that we place at the station location. If none is found, no marker is placed. Please note that only the first callsign found is used. GridMapper cannot currently support multiple operators/stations in one ADIF file.

I know I worked some station, but the area is not mapped?
We can only map the grids that are listed in the QSO record. We look for the standard ADIF fields called GRIDSQUARE or VUCC_GRIDS (for Satellite contacts). If either of these is not present in a qso record, we can not show it. At this time, we do not query callsign databases yet.

How do you find confirmed grids?
This is based on qso records to that grid where one of the following ADIF fields have the value 'Y' or 'V': QSL_RCVD, LOTW_QSL_RCVD or EQSL_QSL_RCVD

How do you calculate the distance shown in the gridsquare info?
This distance is calculated from the center of the station location gridsquare found (if any), to the center of the gridsquare mapped.

What is a gridsquare or grid?
A gridsquare, or simply grid, is a small area used to indicate location. A grid indicater consists of only the first 4 characters, eg. DM33 instead of DM33vq. We use the grid only as this is customary in VHF/UHF exchanges. While the code can calculate and map 6 character subsquare grids, this is currently not enabled. If there is enough demand, we may make that an option.

What is a super or major grid?
A super grid is the big grid consisting of only the first 2 characters, eg. DM instead of DM33.

What is a subsquare?
A subsquare is a small portion of a grid, consisting of 6 characters, eg. DM33vq instead of DM33. We use the subsquare only to outline the home qth, if found in the log file.

What is a microsquare?
A microsquare is an even smaller portion of a subsquare, consisting of 8 characters, eg. DM33vqab instead of DM33. We currently do not use the microsquare, although the code can parse it. However, we do use the subsquare only to outline the home qth, if found in the log file.

What is a geodesic line?
A geodesic line is a projection of a line as it follows the curvature of the earth. On the three-dimensional earth, this is a "straight 3D line" between two points. In flat earth projections, this becomes a curved line. This becomes particularly obvious with major grids. See this Wikipedia article for more.

Where can I learn more about the ADIF file format?
There are many places to learn more, but a good place to start is at http://www.adif.org/

Do you support the new ADIF v3 file format ?
Not yet, but if there is enough demand, we will consider adding support for it. See the suggestions topic at the top.

Where can I learn more about the Googl Maps Javascript API used to render maps?
A good place to start is at Google's Maps Javascript API Documentation

Where can I learn more about the KML file format?
There are many places to learn more, but a good place to start is at Google's KML Documentation For the more programming inclined, here is a tutorial on writing KML files with PHP5's Dom element

Do you have any other references to learn more?
Yes, see this reference page

Ideas, thoughts, etc.

Some things we may consider implementing are below.
If you have thoughts about these or others, please contact the author (see above):