Calling all 21st Century Hams

Tired of the same old static cob-web pages? The New QRZ (no, this isn't like the New Coke) has some offerings that will set your perception of amateur radio on its ear.



If you think you've seen it all, guess again. This latest edition of the QRZ website is something that you have to tryout to appreciate.



Read about what Fred (AA7BQ) has to say about the new site below...


Okay, so they said it couldn't be done. Someone recently said that Ham Radio is where MS-DOS went to retire. If you are the least bit computer literate, you'll understand how profound that statement is. Been to any real swap meets lately? How many MS-DOS machines (286/366 or even 33 Mhz 486's) did you see? My money says that there are plenty of them out there and for some of the oddest reasons, people are still buying them. Okay, I know that the crappy Motorola programming software won't work on faster machines but why should the idiotic design of an industrial software engineer stand in our way?
Was this to be the anthem for ham radio? "Slower machines still work!", they say, "unlike my new Pentium III/900"...



Well, I'm not buying it. I'm not buying any of the old pre-pentium junk unless I decide to start a precious metal recycling business. I'm not buying any of the old hardware or the old crappy software that went with it. I don't even know why I'm making this argument. Every ham knows why they like the newest and most advanced transceivers and why they will steer clear of the Yaesu Memorizer at the swap meets (well, most of us do). Oddly, however, many of those same folks will extoll the virtues of that 'good old reliable 486 machine' that they have in the garage.



Enough said regarding my ranting about old hardware. This is 2000 baby and we need to look ahead. That's why we created the New QRZ.



Well then, what is it?
Cool down, i'm getting to it. First off, the New QRZ incorporates all of the same features as the "Classic QRZ" (did I say that?), plus a lot more (this is starting to sound like an infomercial). Okay, so I'm a little excited. Lets look at some of the new features:
<ul>
[*]MyQRZ - your individually customized view of the world.

Now you can have a page that you design and decide what content goes into it. You can choose to have real-time headlines from dozens of sites with information ranging from comics to stock quotes, techno-news to politics.
[*]Free-flow Public Commentary

Now, every article and opinion poll includes the ability to post your own reaction to it and have it read by others.
[*]Choose Your Preferences

You get to decide how much of QRZ you want. You can pick your own screen name, your own password, or, choose to remain anonymous. We're not collecting names or email addresses for advertisers and spammers (we've never done that) and so it doesn't matter whether we have your real name or not. Just don't piss us off with rude commentary or flamebait.
[*]Multi-Topic Categories

The New QRZ site is arranged in topical categories that cater to a diverse collection of special interests. Don't see a category that you like? Just send us an email and we'll see about setting it up for you. We do the same for local clubs and organizations. We'll even give you administrative privileges for your club section.
[/list]



We truly hope that you'll see the unique and powerful utility of our new system. It's fairly certain that several folks will complain that its too confusing and unfamiliar, just like those who won't upgrade from Windows 3.1. We're forging ahead anyway and to some extent, we'll all have to get used to it.



I'm open to suggestions (except where to go and where I can stick it) and hope to hear hear yours. Rather than send me email complaining or praising what I've done to the site, how about just clicking on Reply To This below and post a message that everybody can read. Just by doing that you will have proven my point.



73, -fred