I have no issue with his point about opening the site up.  However, I have 
the following observations:


1.  The page isn't very friendly.  I am a member and did log in.  The 
callsign results aren't demarcated by being on a heading or list.  You need 
to use the screen-find command to conveniently find it.  You can probably 
set a placemarker, but it might have to be dynamic to account for the 
varying ad activity.

2.  Simple lookups work fine; I have been hit-or-miss on being able to bring 
up the details.  When I look up my call, I invariably get my little 
biographic blurb that I put in when I joined.  Trying to get the detailed 
view that shows my expiration date, grid square, county, etc. is kind of 
hit-or-miss.

The way the site works to get that info is that there are "tabs" for 
biography, Details, Logbook.  If you enter somebody's call, you get the 
biographic view that just shows their address and nothing else unless 
they've written something.

If you enter on the detail tab, it doesn't always refresh the page at least 
with my IE8 and Jaws latest build or with Window Eyes.  It would have been 
better as a straightforward combobox.

What you have to do is treat the tabs almost like a combo box.  In other 
words, if you enter on one of them, it will activate forms mode.  Then arrow 
up or down until you get the right one.  Then press enter to get out of 
forms mode, possibly refresh the page and look for a table that has the 
detailed results.  Because of the way it is coded, the screen reader doesn't 
identify it as a combo box.

As an experiment, I entered my friend Bob's call.  The first time I tried 
this, it ended up on a logbook page that showed his contacts on 144MHz 
sideband with Kd8AJC.  After the second try, I was able to bring up the 
detailed view.  The detailed view is kind of cool, because not only does it 
show the grid square but also shows the path from my location to his, which 
is 57.9 miles at 238 degrees in this case.

3.  QRZ is the best site as some other database sites don't geocode your 
location info as well.  Some sites used to summarize everything by zip code; 
my code is in two counties and those other sites invariably listed me in the 
wrong county because the largest population in that zipcode resides in Eaton 
rather than Ingham County.

Steve, K8SP
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alan R. Downing" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2013 12:45 AM
Subject: Re: QRZ.COM accessibility


> Hello again all,
>
> Fred raises a valid point.  Look, the fact that Fred is a friend has 
> nothing
> to do with my position or feelings about how qrz.com does, or doesn't 
> work.
> One of the main reasons, and perhaps the only reason, that many sites
> require that the user type in a graphically presented term, is to prevent
> automated access to the site for deriving email and such.  Another thing 
> is
> that I do not regard the need to log into qrz.com a hindrance or problem.
> This is a trivial requirement.  As I, and at least one other list member
> said, it takes literally a few seconds to log in and then go about your
> business.