pcunning/hamcall

Are you interested in adding (other downloaders / parsers for) other countries?

Opened this issue · 5 comments

Over at vk6flab/contest-logger#20 we have been asking, approximately, "wouldn't it be good if there was a global version of hamcall.dev?".

I am more than willing to host a more global collection of callsigns. My priorities in hamcall.dev are

  • Free (free to use, cheap to run)
  • Fast
  • Open

Additionally for my own use the program I wrote will even produce a sql-lite database. That database could also be distributed for easy offline use.

@NoseyNick Are you aware of how that Canadian TXT file is generated? Is it made on the spot when you request or is it updated regularly? I wonder because the bottom of the page says last modification is 2017, if it's not auto generated it may be out of date.

If it's a regularly updated listing I don't think it would be too difficult to add, might add some time to the build process slightly but it would likely still remain cheap if 1.5 million files isn't causing problems yet.

I started working on a very bare bones version of support for the Canadian calls based on the file you provided (39e898c on my fork). Needs a lot of work but as of that first commit it does download the calls, get callsign name and address in the system, and works with the LoTW lookup.

HamCall now supports Canadian callsigns as provided by ISED with the merge of #25.

Word of warning, the linked .zip file included in the original ticket by @NoseyNick no longer contains all registered amateur callsigns, because the local regulator, the ACMA, has transitioned amateur radio into a class license and the spectra register only contains actual licenses, some of which are still owned by amateurs, lasting until their personal license expires, at which point their callsign will disappear from that register.

There is an "official" register here: https://www.acma.gov.au/are-you-looking-amateur-call-sign

It only contains the callsign and the associated class of license. There are no personal details and the register often doesn't work.

I have several GB of historic spectra (and its predecessor, radcom) downloads, which I collect to do analysis, but they are of limited use in this application.