Hi Michael - No stoning, no reed to refute, lol. CB Radio up until the boom in the 1970's, used to be (in my sole opinion) a smaller and "easy to get into" public aspect of radio. I remember first obtaining my license in the early 1970's, way before CB morphed itself into a medium that facilitated my decision to evolve into Amateur Radio. In no way, did I state or even suggest that CB consisted of "second class" radio operators but a easy to enter subset of the 11 meter band for public use. When the CB "boom" began there was little/no control of it by the FCC and it became the untamed "wild west" of public radio communications. CB, in fact, inspired me to obtain my Ham license. Since I was and still am a technical person, the progression seemed very natural to me. Without strict goverment oversight to ensure compliance, it is up to licensees in the end to help regulate CB, FRS, GMRS and Amateur Radio. As for Amateur Radio, the ARRL is, again, in my sole opinion, way too liberal in it's "programming" regarding repetitive contesting which exacerbates my stated issues. Thanks for posting your own opinions. That's important. Brian, KF2ZZ
Hi sorry to repeat myself but can we please get some attention to the map issues? I think it's a great tool to have all things considered, and apparently 11 meter operators already have some Android app for spotting each other on which is similar to this too. The map issues are a bit of a deal breaker for me: 1. New Zealand is not visible in the default zoom/pan. The impact is no one will see me if I put up listing, unless they care to zoom out or pan around 2. The anti-meridian bug: the map can not be centered on the anti-meridian, half the world gets cut off (or were the flat earthers right, all along?) This map would be a great help if these issues could be solved, the anti-meridian bug in particular is a problem for me and pan-Pacific operations in general
Hello Brian, I'm glad you refrained from stoning me My experience here with "open-to-air" radio (I'm including all the services that exist in different countries, like CB radio, FreeNET, etc.... Let us call it OTA) is very different. For many of my colleagues at the time, whom I met through this, it was the impetus for switching to the licensed camp sooner or later. However, there are also many who have no interest in making the switch, which brings us to what I consider to be too many regulations. Our world, or rather, the average human, tends to regulate everything and everyone and create a rule for every little poop. It often doesn't matter whether this rule makes sense and/or conflicts with other regulations. Many regulations are created for the sole purpose of making rules. A good example of this, in my view, is the prohibition on HAM operators using the same TRXs to talk to their friends on OTA. For this, you are required to have your own CB TRX and your own FN TRX. There's no sensible justification for this from the responsible authority here. On the one hand, an OM is expected to independently comply with the rules, but on the other hand, they don't trust the OM to do so in the CB or FN band... It couldn't be more paradoxical... Of course, there have to be rules. Here in Germany, the authority is currently taking stricter action against the operation of (illegal) relays and gateways on FreeNET. This actually makes sense, given that there are only six FM frequencies. Blocking two or three of these frequencies with relays or gateways is just sh**. A final word on radio discipline: I can see that, in my area, discipline on CB and FreeNET is often better than on the amateur radio bands. I can see (almost) without exception that general calls on the appropriate call and emergency channels are cleared quickly. This is even more likely on CB than on FreeNET (due to the lack of additional frequencies). Based on ZL3TUX's post that comes up while I'm writing this (note: I don't know of anyone here who has mentioned the inclusion of CB in the system... ), I hereby exit the thread.
These are relatively recent issues - the original RTQM displayed a zoomable, scrollable, infinite map. Some beta testers complained about it and the developers implemented the current version. Speaking as a Londoner - the centre is, by definition, here - I don't mind too much, but I can see that others might find it less convenient. Ideally, it should be an infinite map - i.e. you can scroll it without limits and the land that falls off one side appears at the other - with the zoom out limited to show the entire globe once. That would allow anyone to centre it up on their QTH and see the entire world. Martin (G8FXC)
Thank you, Micha and your points are well taken. We all contribute from our various perspectives and the resultant, collaborative effort will be grand! And now this OM needs to tone it down a notch or two... roger that! I'll toggle my mode switch (actually a "mood" switch) to "Kindly and Constructive". I believe that's somewhere here on the IC-7300 menu. (hi hi) Thanks for taming me down a bit. Cheers! Joe (WA3JR)
Hi all - I'm a bit surprised that there is no commentary from the QRZ Project Lead regarding our posts. I'm sure we all want RTQM to succeed. Maybe they bit off more than they can chew? FWIW.
Yes. Sorry if I wasn't clear, this is simply what I mean by 'anti meridian bug'. Being centered on the prime meridian is fine to me, it's just that what is and isn't a 'map' is a bit of a thing down here in the anti-podes, there's even an island in Fiji which is a cartographers nightmare, crossing the +/- 180 longitude 'boundary'
New feedback and response at: https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/rtqm-feature-requests-and-suggestions.961114/
I just finished reading every reply to this thread. Give it a chance to see how well it works out. The folks who devoted their time and effort deserve that much. I noticed a couple of references to CB radio in the replies. I'm not familiar with the rules and regs around the world, but for 11 meters in this country, except Canada, contacting other stations outside the US is a violation of FCC rules and regulations. I've posted the following in the past, and it bears repeating. If you are (were) an 11-meter operator and complied with ALL the rules and regulations, you should be welcome to ham radio. ยง 95.933 Prohibited CBRS uses. (d) To communicate with stations in other countries, except General Radio Service stations in Canada; https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95/subpart-D
I always like stuff like this, but unless there's mobile apps for it, it's not going to be fully accepted. Yeah most of us will use a desktop at our home station, but if we're not at home... I just remember how awful the QRZ android app used to be. (It may be better now? Haven't looked in YEARS.)
I occasionally log into it and sometimes see a couple of others on the map, but most of the time it's blank. Nice idea, but doesn't appear to be catching on very quickly. Dave (G0DJA)
I do still believe that it should be accessible in a read-only mode without login. I suggested this early on in beta testing, but the QRZ management seemed to be unhappy about the idea. Martin (G8FXC)
You show beam headings/bearing in the "details" QRZ page after looking up a call sign. Why not add beam headings/bearing to the RTQM ? ? K4ULP / Lanny
