QRZ II Help CONTENTS
QRZ II  Help  	Table of Contents

You can access this Help file at any time by pressing the F1 key.

Click on this image to see		the Main Screen.
Performing Searches...

Looking up Callsigns...

Looking up Names...

Looking up Cities and States...

Looking up Street Addresses...

Looking up Zipcodes...

Using Log Files - Saving your Search Results

Printing your Search Results...

Setting Program Options

Command Line Options


Performing Searches

The QRZ database can be searched in any of five different ways - by Callsign, by Name, by City/State, by Street Address or by Zip Code.  The way in which the database is searched depends up the current Lookup Mode selected from the menu at the top of the Main Screen.  When a lookup mode is selected, one or more Key Boxes appear which may be filled in with the data that you're searching for.

For a step-by-step review of how to use each Lookup Mode see:

Looking up Callsigns

Looking up Names

Looking up Cities and States

Looking up Zipcodes

Looking up Street Addresses


 Looking up Callsigns

Callsigns may be looked up either by their suffix  or by the whole callsign.  For example, to lookup AA7BQ, the first step is to go to the menu at the top of the Main Screen and select Lookup and then Callsign.  When this is done, a single Key Box will appear which has the word Callsign: next to it.  In this box, type in  AA7BQ and then click on the Search button. All the available information for AA7BQ will shown on the Display Panel.

To lookup a range of callsigns, a suffix key must be used.  After typing in a callsign suffix into the Callsign Key Box, begin by clicking on the Search button.  The first callsign matching the given suffix will be shown.  To see each additional callsign which matches the suffix, click on the Next button.  You may continue clicking on the Next button until all the last matching callsign has been shown.   Each time you click on the Next button, the Match Counter will update to show you the number of callsigns which matched the given suffix.

Suppose you have a suffix  and you simply want to know how many callsigns match it.  This can be easily done by entering in the suffix as mentioned above and then by clicking on the Count button.  The Count button counts the number of matching records but does not return any of the data associated with them.  While all of the buttons affect the Match Counter, the Count button is the fastest one for returning just the total count.

The Continue button is very similar to the Count button except that it returns and displays the data associated with each matching record.  If a Log File is open or if the Printer is ON, the Continue button also sends data to them as well. The Continue button is useful for visually spotting trends in the data as it rolls by on the screen (unless of course your computer is really fast and you can't make out what's rolling by on the screen...).


callsign suffixes
A callsign suffix is the part of the callsign which includes the area number and the letters which follow it.  For example, a, ab, abc and 7abc are all valid suffixes.  Using a suffix of just the letter A will match callsigns like:  AA7A, NR2A, WU7A, etc..  Using a suffix of '7ABC' finds all callsigns which end in 7ABC such as: N7ABC, W7ABC, KB7ABC, and so on.  You cannot use a number by itself as a suffix.


Looking up Names

The procedure for looking up names is very similar to that used for Callsign lookups.  To begin, you must first go to Main Screen menu and select Lookup and then Name.  Next, two key boxes will appear with one labeled Last Name and one labeled First Name.  When searching for names, remember that typing in a key for the Last Name is required and for the first name it is optional.  In the key box labeled Last Name, type in the last name of the person or persons that you wish to look up.  Last and first names may contain spaces in them such as "VAN  HORN", MARY JANE or "JEAN LUC".

The Last Name which you type in may end with a star (or asterisk '*') character which when used means that any last names beginning with the given characters will match.  The concept is very similar to using the '*' when specifying DOS filenames.

When you use the star (*) at the end of a last name, you can match a whole range of names.  For example, a last name specified as  L* would return all callsigns of people whose last name begins with the letter L.  You can also type several characters before the star as in:  SMI*, which would match all names beginning with SMI as in: SMITH, SMITTY, SMIGEL, SMILEY an so on.

After you've typed in the Last Name, you may then enter a desired First Name and optionally a Middle Initial.  All first names are considered 'wild' and are treated as if a star had been typed at the end.  For example, entering FRED as the First Name will return all records whose last name field matches the given Last Name key and whose first name begins with the letters FRED such as FRED, FREDERICK, FREDERICO, etc..

Middle Initials may be entered in after the first name such as FRED,  L, or RODNEY,  J, etc.  There must be a comma between the first name and the middle initial as shown above.  If the first name is a two-word name like PEGGY SUE then there can be only one space between PEGGY and SUE. There can be only one middle initial.

Once a match is found using any of the above methods, the Next, Count, Continue and FastLog buttons can be used in the same manner as mentioned under Looking up Callsigns.

Note: Name lookups are available for US callsigns only.


Looking up Cities and States

The procedure for looking up cities and states is very similar to that used for Callsign lookups.  To begin, you must first go to Main Screen menu and select Lookup and then City/State.  Next, two key boxes will appear with one labeled City and one labeled State.  When searching for cities, remember that typing in a key for the state is required.  Typing in the city name is optional, in which case all records for a given state are returned.

In the key box labeled City, type in the name of the city or town that you wish to look up.  City names may contain spaces in them such as 'SAINT  LOUIS".  As it is with Last Names under Looking up Names, the City name may end with a star (*) meaning that all records matching the initial pattern will be returned.  You will likely find that quite a few US license records have misspelled cities in them making the star (*) method very useful.

In the key box labeled State, type in the two-letter state code. The State code is required.

After typing in your keys, click on the Search  button to start the search. Once a match is found using any of the above methods, the Next, Count, Continue and FastLog buttons can be used in the same manner as mentioned under Looking up Callsigns

Note: City and State lookups are available for US callsigns only.


Looking up Zipcodes

The procedure for looking up zipcodes is very similar to that used for Callsign lookups.  To begin, you must first go to Main Screen menu and select Lookup and then Zip Codes.  Next, two key boxes will appear with one labeled Zip From and one labeled Zip To.  The Zip From key is required and the Zip To key is optional.

The Zip From key is the key to begin matching zipcodes from, which will return all zipcodes which are equal to Zip From.  When the Zip To key is used, matching continues up to and including all those records which match the Zip To key.  The Zip To key, if used, may not be less than the Zip From key.  After entering in the Zip From key and the optional Zip To key, click on the Search button and proceed with other operations as desired.

Once a match is found using any of the above methods, the Next, Count, Continue  and FastLog  buttons can be used in the same manner as mentioned under Looking up Callsigns .

Note: Zipcode lookups are available for US callsigns only.


Looking up Street Addresses

The procedure for looking up street addresses is identical to that used for Looking up Cities and States except that a third key box, the Street key, is included.  As with the city lookup, the State field is required.  All other fields are optional.  It is possible to look up a street name without specifying the city in which case all streets in the state matching the given street name are returned.

The method used for looking up street addresses is to first perform a city/state match and then check to see if the record contains the given street key.  Because each record is individually scanned, the street search can take a great deal longer than any other type of lookup under QRZ.

When choosing a Street key, try and be as least specific as possible since a great many street names are misspelled and/or spelled differently across the database.  For example, a street name might be CALLE PORTAL but may be found in the database under both CALLE  PORTAL and CALLEPORTAL (one word).  Your best bet is to look for the word PORTAL and hope for the best.

Attempting to lookup a specific numbered street address will be nearly hopeless in all cases since there is such a great variety in the way addresses are written.  For example, if a person lives on 1234 West Main Street, the database (and the FCC records) might contain "1234 W MAIN STREET", "1234 WEST MAIN ST", or "1234 W MAIN ST", all of which are unique as far as the computer is concerned.

The Street Search method looks only for exact matches so unless you have the patience to try every possible combination, it is suggested that (as in the example above) you just look for MAIN, save your results to a Log File and then use the Log File Editor to further refine your search.


Lookup Modes

By specifying a Lookup Mode, you indicate what type of data your'e looking for:

Lookup Mode	Is used to search for...
Callsign	A particular callsign or range of callsigns
Name	A particular or similar name
City / State	All callsigns within a given city and / or state
Zip Code	All callsigns within a given zipcode or range of zipcodes
Street	A street address or street within a given city and / or state
See also:

Looking up Callsigns

Looking up Names

Looking up Cities and States

Looking up Zipcodes

Looking up Street Addresses


Key Boxes

The Key Box area of the Main Screen is used to fill in the desired search key for a particular operation.  Depending upon the current Lookup Mode, different key boxes will appear.

The Key Boxes may be cleared by clicking on the Clear button.  As you move about the database, the Key Boxes may be automatically filled with the contents of the current record if the option value AutoFill is turned on.

See also: Setting Program Options.


Search Button
The Search button is always used to begin a lookup after a key has been entered.  If the Search button finds a match then the Count, Next, and Continue  buttons become active.

See also: Performing Searches


Count Button
The Count button causes the program to go out and see how many records exist which match the current key.  The results are displayed in the Match Count box.  No record data is returned. The Count button is not active until the Search button has returned the first match.

See also: Performing Searches


Next Button
The Next button fetches the next record which matches the current key, after the Search button has found the first record.

See also: Performing Searches


Continue Button
The Continue button acts just as if the Next button were repeatedly pressed until the last record matching the given key(s) has been displayed.  The Continue button is not active until the Search button has found the first match.

See also: Performing Searches


Clear Button
The Clear button clears all of the Key Boxes and the Return Data Panel.


Scroll Bar
This is the Scroll Bar.  For more info see:  Using the Scroll Bar


FastLog Button
The FastLog button is only active when either the Printer  is ON or when a Log File is open.  The FastLog button acts just like the Continue  button except that no data is shown on the screen.  Using the FastLog button quickly dumps the selected data to a file or to the Printer.  The FastLog button is not active until the Search button has found the first match.

See also:

Performing Searches


The Database Scrollbar
Using the Scroll Bar

The Scroll Bar located beneath the Key Boxes is used to casually browse through the database.  When you use the Scroll Bar, the current search is cancelled and you enter into the database browsing mode.

Using the Scroll Bar is not the same as using the Next or Continue buttons.  The Next and Continue buttons look for the next match while the Scroll Bar simply returns the next record, which might not match the current key at all. To see the next match for the current search key, use the Next button.  (Sorry, but there is no way to view the previous match to the current search key, although sometimes the Scroll Bar may show it to you.)

Clicking on the arrows at the left or right of the Scroll Bar moves the database back or forward by one record in either direction.  Clicking on the inside of the scroll bar moves the database in jumps of 100 records. Dragging the scroll bar button moves the database by huge amounts.

Note: Data viewed using the Scroll Bar is not written to the Log File or to the Printer.


Data Panel
The Data Panel is provided as a source for cutting database information (using the Edit->Cut menu item) which also places it in the system clipboard.  This information may then be pasted into other applications such as word processors, text editors and other databases.  All of the QRZ database information is read-only and changes made in the Data Panel are not saved.


Message Panel

The Message Panel is used to show when Log Files are open and when the Printer is turned ON.


Display Panel
The Display Panel is the main data display area for QRZ.  There are no user controls on the Display Panel.


Main Screen Menu
The Main Screen Menu

Menu Name	Purpose
File	Working with Log Files, Printing
Edit	Copy and Paste to/from the Data Panel and Key Boxes
Lookup	Sets the Lookup Mode (Callsign, Name, City, Zipcode, Street)
History	Contains a History list of the last 16 callsigns found
Options	Setup for the Printer, Program Options (AutoFill, Output Formats, etc.)
Help	This Help file


History Menu
History

The History menu contains the last 16 callsigns which were returned by a successful hit by the Search button.  Only the first match is saved, all other matches returned by Next, Continue and FastLog are ignored.  The history list can be cleared using a button on the Options screen.


AutoFill

AutoFill is a capability which may be turned ON or OFF using the Options menu.  When AutoFill is on, the relevant Key data is extracted from the currently displayed record and placed in the proper Key Boxes.


Match Counter
The Match Counter displays the number of records which have been shown that match the given Keys.  Clicking the Search button always resets the Match Count to zero.


Setting Program Options

The Options setting on the Main Screen Menu is used to bring up the Options Settings screen.  This screen is divided into three main parts, the Countries panel, the General panel and the Output Style panel.  In addition, there is a button, Clear History which can be used to clear the list of entries under the History menu item.

All of the settings on the Options Settings screen are saved and remembered the next time the program is run

On the Countries panel you can select the countries that you want included in your searches.  More countries will be added in future versions of QRZ!

In the General panel there are several options: AutoFill, Startup Banner, Save History and Number of Lines per Mail Label.

The AutoFill option turns the AutoFill  feature on or off.

The Startup Banner option controls whether the QRZ banner screen is displayed on program startup.

The Save History option controls whether the callsigns on the History menu are saved and remembered when the program next runs.

The Number of Lines per Mail Label setting allows you to set the number of print lines which are output per mailing label.  The minimum value for this setting is 3.

The Output Style panel selects which type of output format will be sent to the printer or to log files.  The current setting of the Output Style panel is reflected by the information shown in the Data Panel.


Output Formats

There are 5 supported output formats or styles which are selected in the Option Settings screen:

Style	Description
Display	3-line display with all record data shown
Callbook	1-line directory-style display with callsign suffixes aligned
Mail Label	3-line standard mailing label (plus blank lines)
DBF	Comma separated, quoted string raw data output
Raw	Raw QRZ internal ASCII database format

These settings affect how the data is printed  and/or sent to a Log File.  The data output by the DBF and Raw formats is described in the QRZDLL.HLP and QRZ.HLP technical reference documents.  The Options screen can be used to set the number of lines per Mail Label.


Printing

The printing of data gathered by QRZ is accomplished in one of two ways.  First, the data may be saved to a Log File which can then be imported into your favorite word processor or database program and printed from there.  Secondly, QRZ provides a direct print method which will print records as they are fetched from the database.

Printing Basics

First, select the File item and then Print ON from the Main Menu.  A highlighted message will appear on the Message Panel indicating that the Printer is ON.  Make your record selections by using the Search, Next, Continue and FastLog buttons.  Once you have completed your searches, select File and then Print OFF from the Main Screen Menu.  The last may not start printing until you select Print OFF (for reasons outlined below).

The printer Font and Page Orientation can be setup using the Print... dialog under the Options menu.

Advanced Printing Topics

Windows printing uses the concept of pages in that no data is output to the printer until a whole page has been assembled in memory.  Because of this, when you first turn the printer on in QRZ, nothing happens.  Once youve turned the print function on, the search results that you get from the database are stored (or spooled)  in memory until a full page is ready.  Only then does the system send the information out to the printer.  QRZ never holds more than a single page in memory and will dispatch each page to the printer as soon as they become ready.   If you dont gather enough data for a whole page, then youll need to select the Print OFF menu item to flush the partial page out to the printer.

The printing function can be either ON, Suspended or OFF.  When printing is ON, all search data is being sent to the printer.  When printing is Suspended (using the Print HOLD menu selection) the data in memory is retained while you decide what to print next.  Finally, when youve searched and found all of the records that you want printed, you select Print OFF to finish the job.  If you have turned the print function ON and then back OFF again without performing any searches, no blank page will be printed.

Since Windows printing methods are graphics based, laser and ink-jet (and some dot matrix) printers can choose from a variety of font sizes to print with.  Huge characters can be used to make large labels and very tiny characters can be used to make detailed lists. Depending on the font and/or font size used, as many as 800 or as few as 1 records might be printed on a single page.  The Print Setup dialog allows you to calculate the number of lines which will be printed per page given the currently selected font, size and page orientation (Landscape or Portrait).  This information is displayed at the top of the Print... setup window under the Options menu.

QRZs printing abilities can only be described as pretty good in comparison to more advanced tools such as word processors and spreadsheets.  Despite the fact that QRZ can deal with different fonts, printers and paper sizes.  QRZ cannot, for example, print multiple column listings, it does not number the pages, there is no "Page Preview" and it does not print headers or generate reports of any kind.  It only prints what would have been sent to a Log File, in the font and size that you select.  QRZ does make sure that no record is split between pages and will start a new page if all the lines of the current record will not fit on the existing page.  If the print lines are too wide to fit on the page, QRZ will chop them off instead of wrapping around to the next line.

If you are not satisfied with QRZ's printing capabilities, then youll have to save your searches to Log Files and then use your favorite word processor to format and print the data as you like.  You can expect to see more advanced printing in later editions of QRZ.

A special note about fonts: QRZ's font selection is limited to the fixed pitch printer fonts which you have installed on your system.  So, even though you might have a hundred True Type fonts, QRZ can only use the ones which are fixed pitch and will only put up those types of fonts on the selection menu.


Main Screen
Main Screen Controls and Menus

Click on any part of the graphic below for more information.


Using Log Files
Log Files - Saving Search Results

The QRZ database is very large and can easily generate huge amounts of output data.  QRZ provides a method of saving this data to a user specified file called a Log File that can then be used for any purpose.  For example, you might want to create a list of the amateurs in your home town and save it as a separate file.  Then, you may want to take this data and put it into your word processor to generate a custom mailing list.  The use of Log Files makes this easy.

The following steps will tell you how to perform an ordinary  search and save it to a Log File.

First, you should already be familiar with Searching and know how to move around in the database.  Next, you should do a couple of dry run searches to help you decide which records you really want to save.  By using the Count  and/or Continue  buttons you can quickly get a good idea of how many records your search is going to generate. Depending on the output format that youve selected, as many as 200 or so bytes can be generated for each record that is saved to the Log File.

Once you have narrowed your search down to the desired range, select the File and then the Open Log items from the Main Screen Menu.  You will then be prompted for the name of a file and asked if you wish to overwrite or append to it if it already exists.

Once the file is opened and ready, a Log File Open message will be highlighted and displayed on the Message Panel.

Next, type in your desired search key and click on Search. After the first match is returned the Next, Continue, Count and FastLog button become active.  Select either the FastLog (best) or Continue (slower) button to fetch the complete set of matching records and save them to the open Log File.  When finished you may either type in a new Key and start another search or you can click on File and then Close Log to close the open log file.  Once closed, the highlighted message bar will return to normal.  If you want to add more records later, you can alway reopen your Log File and select the Append option to add more records to it.

Notes:

Moving the Scroll Bar does not send output to the open Log File.  Log File records are written only as a result of clicking on Search, Next, Continue and FastLog.  No other buttons or controls write to the open Log File.

See also:  Editing Log Files,Printing


Editing Log Files

Any of the Log Files which have been written by QRZ may be edited while QRZ is running (provided that they're not too big).  To edit a previously saved Log File,  first select File from the Main Screen Menu and then selecting Edit Log. Files which are smaller than 50K are handled by NOTEPAD.EXE and larger files are passed to WRITE.EXE.  If you want to use another editor then you must start it up from either the Windows File Manager or Program Manager application.  You can also use DOS based editors to edit your Log Files.

Note:	You should avoid trying to edit log files which have not yet been closed (Close Log on the File menu).  Unpredictable results can occur.


Command Line Options
QRZII.EXE Command Line Options

If you have installed QRZII on your hard disk using the SETUP.EXE program on the CDROM, you will see that an icon and program group are created on your Program Manager desktop.  If you click once on the QRZII icon and then select File and Properties from the Program Manager main menu, you will notice that a drive letter appears after the QRZII.EXE command.  This drive letter instructs QRZII where to start looking for the CDROM.  If you have more than once CDROM on your system, youll need to run the QRZ CD in the same drive as it was installed in or else QRZ will give you a friendly error message stating that it was found in a different place than it was expected.

If you want to the program to search for the QRZ CD each time the program starts up, you can edit the File and Properties selection on the Program manager and simply remove the drive letter after QRZII.EXE.  When this is the case, QRZII will search every drive in your system starting with the C: drive for the \callbk\callbkc.dat file which tells QRZ where to begin executing.

Normally it is best to have a drive letter specified since it speeds program startup.  If you want to see which drive was picked by QRZ, you can select the Help and About items from the QRZ Main Menu.