Set your location (grid square)
Your Maidenhead locator places you on the map, powers distance and bearing tags, and rides along with your CQ. Here is where to set it and what uses it.
Your Maidenhead grid square (like IO93id) is how the map places you, how distance and bearing to other stations are worked out, and what goes out with your CQ.
Where to set it
Either place works — the app honours both:
- The first-run wizard or your Profile (the “Locator” field), or
- Settings → grid square.
If both are filled in, the Settings value wins. Upper or lower case doesn’t matter — io93id and IO93ID are the same square.
What uses it
- The map — your own marker, and everyone else’s view of you.
- Distance and bearing on operator profiles and traffic lines.
- Your CQ — the locator is appended so distant stations know where you are.
- APRS and PSK Reporter, if you’ve enabled those integrations.
- Your contact log entries.
No locator?
You still appear to others: if you’re clearly in contact with a located station, the map shows you as a dashed ring near them, labelled as approximate. Setting a real locator replaces that guess with your actual square. Four characters (IO93) is enough; six (IO93id) is better.
New to Open Signal?
Start with the overview — what it does, the honest status, and how the pieces fit together.