Sorry for all of the garbage in my earlier message; here it is again cleaned
up, or so I hope! -- Ron, K8HSY
###***###
In case some of you are not aware of how you can use wildcards when looking
up calls on QRZ.COM, I thought I would share these helpful tips with all of
you.
I may be the only op that has this problem, but often when I am working DX,
I cannot get 100% of the other station's callsign. Often I can get most or
all of the other information, e.g. signal strength, QTH, op name, and nearly
all of the call, but I'm not sure of one letter, or sometimes I'm not 100%
certain of a couple of elements of the other station's call. So, I use
wildcard characters to find it on QRZ. For example, let's say that I worked
G0GXH on CW, and I know his name was PJ, and I am certain about the 0GXH
part of his call, but because of QSB and QRM I just cannot pick out the
first letter. So, I can put a question mark to replace the missing first
letter when looking it up in QRZ.COM, e.g. ?0GXH. QRZ will display a list of
all the calls in the world that start with one letter and end with 0gxh.
When I do this here is what I get:
N0GXH JOHNNY R HOCHEVAR PUEBLO CO
G0GXH PJ Rogers NOTTINGHAM
M0GXH John M Hayward Barnsley
F0GXH TOURNIER Jean-Paul ROSENAU
Obviously, the station I worked was G0GXH; that is the only person on the
list whose name is PJ. Now, let's take another example where I worked
JH3EUJ, but this time I'm not certain about the prefix; it could be OH3EUJ
or maybe even OS3EUJ; I know the op's name is Jin, and I only got part of
his QTH. This time I can go to QRZ and put in *3EUJ, and QRZ will give me
all of the calls that end with 3EUJ. When I do this here is what I get from
QRZ:
Page 1 of 1, of 9 matches for: *3EUJ
LU3EUJ RICARDO OSVALDO CABANELAS MADERO BA 1752
WB3EUJ JONAS K LODGE Annapolis MD
N3EUJ DONNA M DAVIS HAMBURG PA
LW3EUJ EVA MARIA QUINTANA LUJAN BA 6700
YV3EUJ RIVAS ALVARO SAN FELIPE
JH3EUJ Jin Nakano Kakogawa Hyogo, 675-0016,
PA3EUJ JAN VOSMEIJER DEVENTER
G3EUJ VHJ POTTER HANTS BH25 6NW
VK3EUJ PJ MOLLOY HASTINGS, VIC 3915
Once again, it is quite obvious that the only call that matches up with
the op's name that I have is JH3EUJ whose name is Jin. Wild cards like this
can be used to search for calls when you are missing the numbers or letters
in the suffix as well. For example, I worked Fred, HK1ANP, but let's say
that I am pretty certain that I have the HK1A right, but with a high noise
level combined with QSB, I just keep missing the last letters in his call;
it could be HK1ATG or maybe HK1ANW, but I just couldn't quite pull it out.
So, again I can go to QRZ and put in HK1A*, and here is what I get:
Page 1 of 1, of 15 matches for: HK1A*
HK1A David J. Sourdis Atl=E1ntico
HK1PRA Luis Alfonso Jimenez Alarcon Barranquilla (alias match)
HK1APN ROBERTO ANTONIO LLINAS GRAU BOGOTA D.C.
HK1AMW Bolmar Aguilar Barranquilla
HK1AFS ALVARO EDUARDO SANCHEZ MALDONADO BARRANQUILLA ATLANTICO
HK1ATS JAIME GARCIA CHADID SINCELEJO
HK1AT Dxpedici=F3n Solidary of RASE Dx Group Mucura Island SA-078 FROM
14-19/10
HK1AB OMAR EMILIO MERLANO AROCA BARRANQUILLA ATLANTICO
HK1AA Roberto Antonio (BOB) Grau Llin=E1s Barranquilla
HK1AUZ HERNANDO GARAVITO CARDENAS BARRANQUILLA ATLANTICO
HK1AC Alfredo Elias Chalela Rengifo Barranquilla
HK1ANP Freddy A Cabarcas E JUAN DE ACOSTA AT
HK1AZH MARGARITA MARTINLEYES DE N BARRANQUILLA ATLANTICO
HK1MW BOLMAR AGUILAR Juan de Acosta , ATL (alias match)
HK1ASL BLAS EMIRO AGUILAR VEGA BARRANQUILLA ATLANTICO
Again, it is obvious that I must have worked Freddy, HK1ANP.
I am sharing this with you because one of the other hams on our list heard
me say something about this on EchoLink and suggested that I share it with
the rest of you. Some of you may have some other ways to get the most out of
QRZ or some other similar resource, and if you do, please share it with us.
Personally, I have learned so much from all of you on our Blind Hams list,
and all of you have been so helpful. So, I like to give back when I can.
Ron, K8HSY
Dr. Ronald E. Milliman
Retired Professor of Marketing
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