The Fred Fish Memorial Award was created in honor of Fred Fish, W5FF (SK), who is the first amateur to have worked and confirmed all 488 Maidenhead grid squares in the 48 contiguous United States on 6 Meters. The award will be given to any amateur who can duplicate W5FF's accomplishment.
 

This award also encourages operation on the VHF bands from rare grid squares (known as Grid DXpedtitions) to help activate all 488 grids. For a list of which grids are considered rare, please follow the link to the Most Wanted Grids Survey on this page.
 

The rules of FFMA closely follow the VUCC rules. Please read the rules carefully.
 

Questions about the FFMA may be directed to ARRL Contest Branch Manager Sean Kutzko, KX9X.

FFMA Announcement from 2008 PDF

The following is the list of all 488 grid squares that must be confirmed on 6 meters to qualify for the FFMA:

CM FIELD: 12 grid squares

CM79

CM86 - CM89

CM93 - CM99

CN FIELD: 27 grid squares

CN70 - CN78

CN80 - CN88

CN90 - CN98

DL FIELD 5 grid squares

DL79

DL88 - DL89

DL98 - DL99

DM FIELD: 90 grid squares

DM02 - DM09

DM12 - DM19

DM22 - DM29

DM31 - DM39

DM41 - DM49

DM51 - DM59

DM61 - DM99

DN FIELD: 90 grid squares

DN00 - DN08

DN10 - DN18

DN20 - DN28

DN30 - DN38

DN40 - DN48

DN50 - DN58

DN60 - DN68

DN70 - DN78

DN80 - DN88

DN90 - DN98

EL FIELD: 27 grid squares

EL06 - EL09

EL15 - EL19

EL28 - EL29

EL39

EL49

EL58 – EL59

EL79

EL84

EL86 - EL89

EL94 - EL99

EM FIELD: 100 grid squares

EM00 - EM99

EN FIELD: 80 grid squares

EN00 - EN08

EN10 - EN18

EN20 - EN29

EN30 - EN38

EN40 - EN48

EN50 - EN58

EN60 - EN67

EN70 - EN76

EN80 - EN86

EN90 - EN92

FM FIELD: 20 grid squares

FM02 - FM09

FM13 - FM19

FM25 - FM29

FN FIELD: 37 grid squares

FN00 - FN03

FN10 - FN14

FN20 - FN25

FN30 - FN35

FN41 - FN46

FN51

FN53 - FN57

FN64 - FN67

1. Overview. The Fred Fish Memorial Award (FFMA) is awarded for confirming contact with all 488 Maidenhead grid squares in the 48 contiguous United States on the 6 meter (50 MHz) band. Grid locators are designated by a combination of two letters and two numbers. More information on grid locators can be found in January 1983 QST, pp 49-51 (reprint available upon request. Send a 9 × 12-inch SASE with 3 units of postage). The ARRL World Grid Locator Atlas and the ARRL Grid Locator for North America are available from the ARRL Publication Sales Department.

The FFMA award is available to all amateurs worldwide; however, ARRL membership is required for hams in the US, its possessions and Puerto Rico.

2. Dates. Only those contacts dated January 1, 1983 or later are creditable for FFMA purposes.

3. Endorsements. The FFMA does not offer any endorsements based on specific modes, nor does it offer any recognition of progress towards the end goal. An Amateur does not qualify for the FFMA until all 488 required grids are confirmed.

4. General Rules

   (a) No contacts through active repeaters or satellites are permitted.

   (b) Contacts with aeronautical mobiles (in the air) do NOT count.

   (c) Any portion of an FFMA grid may be worked for FFMA credit. It is not necessary for an FFMA operation to be on US soil; operations from Canadian or Mexican territory or from water within an FFMA-required grid are acceptable.

   (d) Stations who claim to operate from more than one grid locator simultaneously (i.e., from the boundary between two grid locators or from the intersection of four grid locators) must be physically present in all locators to give multiple locator credit with a single contact. These stations should be prepared to validate their claim. For a mobile station, this means parking the vehicle exactly on the line or corner. For a portable station, this means that the total area occupied by the station's physical setup, including operating position(s), power source(s), and antenna(s), must occupy some portion of each of the two/four grid squares simultaneously. Operators of boundary/corner stations should be prepared to provide evidence of meeting the simultaneous occupation test if called upon to do so. Two photographs -- one showing the placement of the GPS receiver in the station setup, and a close-up legibly showing the GPS reading -- are typically needed as evidence of compliance. Video footage showing an overview of the operating site and then, uncut and in real time, zooming in on the GPS display coordinates is even better.

   (e) Grid boundary lines and grid corners must be established using a GPS receiver whose map datum is set to WGS84, the global default for current GPS receivers. The GPS receiver should be set to use WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) if so equipped, since this improves the error figure to as little as 5 feet. In no case may the GPS receiver show an error figure in excess of 20 feet. Any modern GPS receiver equipped with WAAS will easily meet this requirement, as will most older units without WAAS.

5. Applicant's Operating Location. All contacts applied to an applicant’s FFMA award must be made by the applicant from locations no more than 200km apart.

6. Application Procedure (please follow carefully):

   (a) Confirmations (QSLs) and application forms must be submitted to an approved VHF Awards Manager for certification. ARRL Special Services Clubs appoint VHF Awards Managers whose names are on file at HQ. If you do not know of an awards manager in your area, HQ will give you the name of the closest manager. (Also located on the Web at: http:\\www.arrl.org/awards/vucc.) Foreign VUCC applications should be checked by the Awards Manager for their IARU Member Society in their respective country. Do not send cards to HQ, unless asked to do so.

   (b) For the convenience of the Awards Manager in checking cards, applicants may indicate in pencil (pencil ONLY) the grid locator on the address side of the cards that DO NOT clearly indicate the grid locator. The applicant affirms that he/she has accurately determined the proper location from the address information given on the card by signing the affirmation statement on the application.

   (c) Cards must be sorted:

      (1) Alphabetically by field

      (2) Numerically from 00 to 99 within that field 

   (d) Where it is necessary to mail cards for certification, sufficient postage for proper return of all cards and paperwork, in addition to appropriate fees as noted in #8, must be included along with a separate self-addressed mailing label. ARRL accepts no responsibility for cards handled by mail to and from VHF Awards Managers and will not honor any claims.

   (e) A numbered plaque will be awarded to each person who qualifies for the FFMA.

7. Fees.  There is no fee for the FFMA Award; however, ARRL membership is required for hams in the US, its possessions and Puerto Rico to apply.

8. Disqualification.

   (a) Altered/forged confirmations or fraudulent applications submitted may result in disqualification of the applicant from FFMA and VUCC participation by action of the ARRL Awards Committee.

   (b) The applicant affirms he/she has abided by all the rules of membership in the FFMA program and agrees to be bound by the decisions of the ARRL Awards Committee.

9. Rules Decisions. Decisions of the ARRL Awards Committee regarding interpretation of the rules here printed or later amended shall be final.

10. Operating Ethics. Fair play and good sportsmanship in operating are required of all FFMA members.

 The FFMA Leader Board is maintained by Mark Ammann, KM0A

FFMA Rare Grid Survey from December 2010 (PDF)
 

Most Wanted Grids Map by Russell Dwarshius, KB8U (updated December 2010)

Color Map (PDF)

Black & White Map (PDF)

The FFMA Grid Tracker Map spreadsheet was developed by Dave Clouser, NZ3M, and is available here at arrl.org with his permission.

All required FFMA grids are listed in a drop-down menu by grid field (CM, CN, DN, etc). Manually enter your worked and confirmed grids, and the spreadsheet will automatically keep track of your grid totals. The spreadsheet will even display your totals in a color-coded map. Manually update your spreadsheet when you work a new grid.

Latest version: 2.1 (February 28, 2011)

Download the NZ3M FFMA Grid Tracker Map here

WG7J has created a web application that allows you to upload an ADIF log and have it filtered by band. It will show you grids worked and confirmed based on the uploaded data.
Go Now

FFMA Application Form

FFMA QSL/Grid Listing Sheet