QRZ App for Android now in Beta Testing

As some of have noticed, I was working on the server and there were several minutes of downtime.

GOOD NEWS! I have fixed the compound (slashed) call sign problem. Check out all your favorite compounds now, like:

AA7BQ/M
AA7BQ/QRP
1B/TA5osc
9A/R3FC

 

As of this afternoon we have 450 Beta Testers using the new program Many thanks to all as we're getting some great feedback. The App quietly reports errors back to QRZ and each time one comes in, I fix it. Today we only received one error, YAY.

I will have another update micro-release ready tomorrow. Tomorrow's release will test some new networking code that we implemented today.

 

New Release today, Version 2.0.28 includes:

- new Map options (satellite, terrain, etc)
- more Grid Square information
- various appearance updates
- new low-level networking layer for greater reliability

Thanks to everyone who has reported back to us. The process is going very smoothly and this Beta release will become a candidate for Production!

Get your copy at https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.qrz.database.callsign

73, -fred

 

Sorry, but no logging is supported at this time. We're looking into it, however.

Callsigns like SM6/LB4FH/P are simply too difficult to deal with. Bear in mind that the server doesn't know at first glance which part of this triplet is the primary callsign. We, as humans know that LB4FH is primary, but we can't seem to find a rule that works for all instances since the primary can have a prefix, a suffix, or both, or none.

Programmer's joke: "If all call signs could be reduced to an MD5 hash, the problem would be solved. Just try calling
71f920fa275127a7b60fa4d4d41432a3 in a contest!"

 

Well, that had to be the shortest release in history.... Version 2.0.30 now available.

The easiest way to find bugs is to release the program into the wild. Fortunately, I found two bugs right here on my device and fixed them on the spot.

 

It depends on the resolution and size of your device’s display.

About the only alternative to the current behavior would be to scale the fonts based on screen width.

The app is developed on a desktop emulator that mirrors the Google Pixel phones capabilities. We don’t see any overlap on the emulator nor does it happen on my 5 year old HTC mobile phone running Android 5.x.

Screen layouts for applications is always an iterative process. There is always too little space to fit everything we want. Sure, we can use tricks like stacking buttons and menus under other objects, but in the end every decision is a trade off.

Perhaps what we need here is what Microsoft calls a ComboBox, which is a widget that is both a drop down list as well as an input box. Might be worth looking into...

73! -fred