Thank you for all the help and let me know how this works.

The updated version is now running.
http://www.onlinehamfest.com/search.htm

tnx es 73
Zed Zed

To reply to this message by email, please remove the X's.

Still not quite right, I'm afraid. It is searching for the input
string not only in the prefix list, but also in the country name list
and in the suffixes of complete callsigns.

I tried MM, MI, MX, MJ, MU, GX, ZB

In most cases, the correct reference was found but also a huge number
of other irrelevant references.

Can you make it search the prefix field only?


That's what I did in the first database, search just one unique ID. And
with the first database, I decided to stop with only the first two digits of
the call sign. I had every current country allocation listed from A0 to 9Z.
Thus enter the first two digits of the call sign for the allocated country.
By the way, I edited each of the 1,042 entries by hand in Windows Notepad.

The cty.dat file lists call prefixes by country, instead of by number like
the first database. It has only 340+ lines since it's by country. Then the
extra prefixes for the country are listed in each entry in each database
line.

I think I may have this working a bit better now. I used another file
editor to leave a space between the additional call signs and now have the
output displayed in neater and more organized rows.

Please try it now and let me know what you think about it. It displays the
same output but it is a lot easier to read.

Thanks,
Dave, Zed Zed

To reply to this message by email, please remove the X's.

I have here a QSL from 1Z4NG (Norhday Island) ...
another from 9S4BN (Saar) ...
and also I1BNU (Trieste) ...
and DL1DX (Germany) ...
and Y32AB (East Germany) ...
and VK9TW (Now C2) ...
and ...

DL1, in particular, did not work right, turned up CE9, FO/m and GM/s.

Prefix to country lookup requires a date, for many callsigns.
This might be an optional input on the form.

Here is how I did it, in an Access database, 4 tables.

Hierarchy of lookup:

Call, a table of "unique and unusual calls".
Prefix, from the specific callsign prefix gives the generic prefix.
Region, from the generic prefix, e.g. UA2 is not Russia.
Entity, from the generic prefix.

Each entry in the call, prefix, region, entity tables has a start and end
date.

I use the current country.dat as a starting point, but it does not
cover some situations, and does not go back far enough in time for me.

Also wanted would be state (province / canton / prefecture) information,
grid square, county, IOTA, QSL manager, email address, etc.

Would be very nice to have a central database of such information.

QRZ has a lot of the data, but there is not (to my knowledge) a
simple means to make a realtime query, e.g. via XML.

--

... Hank

http://home.earthlink.net/~horedson
http://home.earthlink.net/~w0rli
"Zed Zed" wrote in message
.. .
Thank you for all the help and let me know how this works.

The updated version is now running.
http://www.onlinehamfest.com/search.htm

tnx es 73
Zed Zed

To reply to this message by email, please remove the X's.

Two characters do not suffice.
e.g. 3D2 and 3DA, VK9C,L,M,N,W,X ...

--

... Hank

http://home.earthlink.net/~horedson
http://home.earthlink.net/~w0rli
"Zed Zed" wrote in message
. ..
Still not quite right, I'm afraid. It is searching for the input
string not only in the prefix list, but also in the country name list
and in the suffixes of complete callsigns.

I tried MM, MI, MX, MJ, MU, GX, ZB

In most cases, the correct reference was found but also a huge number
of other irrelevant references.

Can you make it search the prefix field only?


That's what I did in the first database, search just one unique ID. And
with the first database, I decided to stop with only the first two digits
of
the call sign. I had every current country allocation listed from A0 to
9Z.
Thus enter the first two digits of the call sign for the allocated
country.
By the way, I edited each of the 1,042 entries by hand in Windows Notepad.

The cty.dat file lists call prefixes by country, instead of by number like
the first database. It has only 340+ lines since it's by country. Then
the
extra prefixes for the country are listed in each entry in each database
line.

I think I may have this working a bit better now. I used another file
editor to leave a space between the additional call signs and now have the
output displayed in neater and more organized rows.

Please try it now and let me know what you think about it. It displays
the
same output but it is a lot easier to read.

Thanks,
Dave, Zed Zed

To reply to this message by email, please remove the X's.

I am working on a new database. I'll try to have it up and running soon.




"Zed Zed" wrote in message
.. .
Thank you for all the help and let me know how this works.

The updated version is now running.
http://www.onlinehamfest.com/search.htm

tnx es 73
Zed Zed

To reply to this message by email, please remove the X's.