Late last year I had an email from a Russian Amateur radio operator asking what my WAB square was. “My what square?” I thought.
So after a bit of googling I found the worked all Britain website and also a facebook group
So its one of these award things, or just something to add to your log and collect “wab squares” when you make a contact with someone in one of those squares, Im not really interested in the award part but I will have a go at collecting some squares, although so far I haven’t spoken to may UK amateurs, I might blow the dust of my VHF/UHF radio and try SSB on that. Typically on HF I don’t hear many “local” stations as I am limited on antenna space living on a 10meter long boat.
So how do I find my WAB square?
A WAB square is a 10KM Ordinance Survey grid square. There a a few ways to work it out.
- if you can read an OS map, read it and work out your grid.
- https://gridreferencefinder.com/ is a good site, enter your postcode, right click on the point it plots on the map.
- www.streetmap.co.uk – this has s link to convert your selected location to an OS grid reference.
- Smartphone Apps – I got one called GPS GB that displays the location from the phone’s GPS as an OS grid reference.
For your wab square you need the two letters and the First number of the Eastings followed by the First Number of the Northings
Therefore if your OS Grid Reference is SU512385 then your WAB square is SU53 (SU512385)