Why QRZ?

[W1RKW]

I've been visiting QRZ more often recently. Never really paid much attention to QRZ in the past.  I noticed recently more AM related subject matter and activity from AMfone members over on QRZ in the AM section than over here. What up with that?

[KD1SH]

  Speaking for myself, I didn't even realize until recently—like a few months ago—that there was an AM section within the QRZ forum. Since then I've posted there a number of times. Why? I guess it's just because even though many of this forum's most knowledgeable members post there as well as here, there's just enough difference in the demographics between the two forums to result in a little variation in opinion and individual "take" on topics. Like reading multiple books on the same subject: the facts don't change but the nuances of the author's approach can enhance the learning experience, as can running ideas past different groups of people. It's just a bit of variety, that's all.

I've been visiting QRZ more often recently. Never really paid much attention to QRZ in the past.  I noticed recently more AM related subject matter and activity from AMfone members over on QRZ in the AM section than over here. What up with that?

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I won't get into details, butt some people get pissed for long periods of time and generally are running on a mutual agenda!

Our overall stats are good and membership is up.
http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?action=stats

I look at it as an "off-the-cuff" complement to our original AMfone web site. AMfone came into existence as we all know it in the year 2002. It is the combination of three websites that were started in the 90's.
To look back at the history of AMfone: http://amfone.net/amfonehistory.htm
Over the years, some have tried to imitate AMfone, but none have succeeded.

However, it always would be nice to have more participation here on AMfone. We have a wide, varied and excellent technical expertise membership that continues to grow.

QRZ has a member base of nearly 1,000,000 registered members as of Oct 18, 2024 so trying to compete makes no sense. Fred has nurtured that web site for roughly 30 years and has done a great job. QRZ has a wide variety of features and functions that draws new and existing members all the time.

Actually, it's a great testament to the love and longevity of the "AM mode" that there are two very recognized AM forums on the Internet! How great is that!

[W1RKW]

Actually, it's a great testament to the love and longevity of the "AM mode" that there are two very recognized AM forums on the Internet! How great is that!

Couldn't agree more, Pete.  

I just figured the lack of activity as of late was just attributed to others doing other things outside of radio.  Having recently retired, I have more time on my hands for poking around on the net and noticing things.

Good the membership is up.  It's almost time for fund raising.

[KD1SH]

  I remember when Electric Radio went from monthly to bi-monthly, and how disappointed I was with that. And then a friend of mine, who is familiar with the publisher and has submitted articles to the magazine in the past, pointed out that it wasn't so much due to a decline in subscriptions but rather a lack of submitted material.
  Like a magazine, a forum is only as popular or informative as its members make it. There are some truly outstanding and knowledgeable people here, and I salute them for making this forum such a wonderful resource. For the rest of us, including my humble self, let's not limit ourselves to only reading the forum, but contribute when we've got something worth contributing. Even the most seemingly simple question can sometimes release a flood of useful information.

[Detroit47]

As far as QRZ goes it is a for profit entity. When you have to pay to look at different things it is right up there with a pay porn site. I don't begrudge the guy making a buck. It just ain't gonna be from me. In beetween advertising and subscriptions he can quit his day job.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

As far as QRZ goes it is a for profit entity. When you have to pay to look at different things it is right up there with a pay porn site. I don't begrudge the guy making a buck. It just ain't gonna be from me. In between advertising and subscriptions he can quit his day job.

Bills have to be paid. If you don't have advertising or subscription monies coming in, it all then comes out of the owner's pocket. Server, storage, backup, and security costs are not cheap today. I'm sure that there are probably a number of behind the scenes costs that come up on a regular basis. Running a highly reliable web site is not a inexpensive endeavor.

I wouldn't be surprised if his server costs alone are at least several thousand bucks a month.

Just the forum part>> QRZ Forum Statistics (pulled today, 12/29/24, at 9:35 PM EST)
Discussions: 653,155
Messages:  5,297,365
Members:   1,021,631

[KW6T]

For me, I seem to hit a wall on AMfone.  The last response to one of my requests for help was unwanted, unnecessary and certainly unhelpful.  I have seen the light and am from here forward am keeping my posts to sites where fellow hams are actually interested in maintaining our gear and promoting AM. 

73,
KW6T
QSY and QRT

[KD1SH]

  Yeah, a "Lifetime Platinum Subscription," for $995. Yow! There are lower-priced tiers as well, but those paid subscriptions are for services other than the forum itself, which is free except for the very small "Boardroom" portion.
 

As far as QRZ goes it is a for profit entity. When you have to pay to look at different things it is right up there with a pay porn site. I don't begrudge the guy making a buck. It just ain't gonna be from me. In beetween advertising and subscriptions he can quit his day job.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

  Yeah, a "Lifetime Platinum Subscription," for $995. Yow! There are lower-priced tiers as well, but those paid subscriptions are for services other than the forum itself, which is free except for the very small "Boardroom" portion.

Obviously, no one QRZ is twisting your arm to get any of the paid features.

ARRL Life membership rates now vary from $960 to $3333 depending on your age.

I went shopping for a new car last December. Hadn't shopped for a new car in 20 years. Sticker price on many took my breath away.

Life goes on!

[KA3EKH]

Dam son, I went over to that QRZ thing to try to see what all the buzz is about.  Found a header for forums but just a boat load of modern Ham junk. Maybe this is what the future of on line stuff is, but just not what I am into. Run across QRZ before when I have done call searches, they want money to look up call signs; can do that for free on the FCC web page. Never did see any of this AM Stuff everyone is flocking to or anything else that interested me. Somehow makes me think of ten years ago when everyone had to be on Face book, or years before that when if you did not have an AOL account you were not a complete Ham. If this is what the future is imagine I will be just left behind again and stick with email reflectors and web pages with a minimum of animated gifs and a Pay to play attitude.

[W3SLK]

KA3EKH said:

Dam son, I went over to that QRZ thing to try to see what all the buzz is about.  Found a header for forums but just a boat load of modern Ham junk. Maybe this is what the future of on line stuff is, but just not what I am into. Run across QRZ before when I have done call searches, they want money to look up call signs; can do that for free on the FCC web page. Never did see any of this AM Stuff everyone is flocking to or anything else that interested me. Somehow makes me think of ten years ago when everyone had to be on Face book, or years before that when if you did not have an AOL account you were not a complete Ham. If this is what the future is imagine I will be just left behind again and stick with email reflectors and web pages with a minimum of animated gifs and a Pay to play attitude.

It doesn't cost you anything to post or to do call sign searches. You can even put your bio on there with photos. As far as forums, there is pretty much a forum for what ever tickles your fancy. In the Technical Forum you will find anything technical as far as radio is concerned. Antennas, boatanchors, AM forum, Home Brew, Amps etc! You can even b!tch about the ARRgghhL if you want to. I'm not a moderator nor do I have a subscription.

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Dam son, I went over to that QRZ thing to try to see what all the buzz is about.  Found a header for forums but just a boat load of modern Ham junk. Maybe this is what the future of on line stuff is, but just not what I am into. Run across QRZ before when I have done call searches, they want money to look up call signs; can do that for free on the FCC web page. Never did see any of this AM Stuff everyone is flocking to or anything else that interested me. Somehow makes me think of ten years ago when everyone had to be on Face book, or years before that when if you did not have an AOL account you were not a complete Ham. If this is what the future is imagine I will be just left behind again and stick with email reflectors and web pages with a minimum of animated gifs and a Pay to play attitude.

As Mike said, call sign searches don't cost you anything unless you're doing hundreds of searches. Most forums are free to read and respond. BUT, attitudes at times tend to be rough and having a thick skin makes it easier to tolerate. Moderation is very good there to keep things on track.
They pull all their call sign data, I believe every day. directly from the FCC database.

Facebook stills sucks! 

I still have an active AOL account and it's actually quite good. The basic service is still free.
On June 23, 2015, AOL was acquired by Verizon Communications for about $4 billion.On May 3, 2021, Verizon sold Yahoo and AOL to private equity firm Apollo Global Management for $5 billion. On September 1, 2021, AOL became part of the new Yahoo! Inc.

Here's your QRZ call sign info:

KA3EKH

Ray A Fantini
28421 Old Eden Road
Eden, MD 21822
USA

Ham Member Lookups: 4199

Lookups   4199 (4361)
QRZ Record#   75427
Last Update   2020-02-09 20:30:04
Class   General Codes: HAI
Effective   2020-02-08
Expires   2030-02-20
Grid Square   FM28eh
Geo Source   Geocoded Address
US State   Maryland
US County   Wicomico
Bearing   205.2° SSW (from NJ)
Distance   164.6 mi ( 264.9 km)
Long Path   24692.2 mi (39738.3 km)
Sunrise   12:19:13 UTC
Sunset   21:51:35 UTC
CQ Zone   5
Born   1959
GMT Offset   -5 hours
FCC Record #   289530

[KA3EKH]

Wow fancy! I just keep getting hit with a thing wanting me to sign in and assumed that there was some cost but goes to show what happens when one assumes. Once again I will say that I have often been known for not being the sharpest tool in the shed. Don’t know if I will go set up an account or not, no ill intent, not trying to be negative or demeaning or something like that, just plain ignorant.
Remember ignorance is bliss!

[K4RT]

QSY and QRT

I don't know what that's about but sometimes you don't get the answer you're looking for right away or at all in online forums. If you think you'll do any better in the QRZ forums, good luck. For every person who posts a rational reply to a post in a QRZ forum there are a hundred sh-t stirrers who don't know anything and have no intention to offer anything worthwhile just waiting to mess up the thread. I do use QRZ to look up call signs for QSLing and I have a bio and a few photos posted there and it's a good service for that.

Happy new year to you all.

73,
Brad K4RT

[Sam KS2AM]

For every person who posts a rational reply to a post in a QRZ forum there are a hundred sh-t stirrers who don't know anything and have no intention to offer anything worthwhile just waiting to mess up the thread.

amen

[WA1LGQ]

Nothing against QRZ, I use it. But here is a nice alternative for callsign lookups and has some interesting features.  https://www.wm7d.net/

[Pete, WA2CWA]

Nothing against QRZ, I use it. But here is a nice alternative for callsign lookups and has some interesting features.  https://www.wm7d.net/

And here's another: https://www.ae7q.com/query/

Actually, if you Google    call sign lookup   
You'll find a bunch  https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-e&q=call+sign+lookup

[W1RKW]

this one went offline for a period of time but I'm glad it's back.
https://callsign.wa5lru.org/search.php

[KW6T]

this one went offline for a period of time but I'm glad it's back.
https://callsign.wa5lru.org/search.php

Bob, 
This is great!  No nonsense, and it is fast!  
Thanks for posting.
73,

Russ, KW6T

[W7TFO]

I am a 'ghost' moderator on a QRZ forum:

Amplitude Modulation - the AM Forum

Lots of participation, not a lot of tolerance for SSBers.

73DG

[Pete, WA2CWA]

I am a 'ghost' moderator on a QRZ forum:

Amplitude Modulation - the AM Forum

Lots of participation, not a lot of tolerance for SSBers.

73DG

AM forum discussions versus total number of QRZ discussions since adding the AM forum comes out to roughly 0.2%

AM forum posts versus total number of QRZ posts since adding the AM forum comes out to roughly 1%.

They have over 1,00,000 registered members and probably a wide variety of them have a limited dedicated interest in the AM mode. i.e. it's one of several positions on the mode switch. It's just another AM forum to read to see what's happening.

Scrolling down their AM forum thread titles, I see titles there that don't raise a lot of AM reading excitement.

And some of us know why some "former" active members migrated over there.

    It's life; thin skin; some can't always have it their way; life goes on! 

You said:  "not a lot of tolerance for SSBers"
  In order to participate in the QRZ AM forum, is there a form one has to fill out or check mark citing allegiance to the AM mode and negativity to the SSB mode? 

I could go on but what forum one goes to read or belong to, is their business. I really don't care. I'm a member here; I'm a member of QRZ; and I'm a member of a number of other forums including some archaic text only forums. The Internet provides a lot of reading participant variety.