The overall layout and functionality has not changed for those of you already familiar with my one-of-a-kind lookup program. Like most other call sign lookup tools, just enter your desired call sign, and then click a button. It couldn't be easier. Unlike all other call sign lookup tools, my Unique Call Lookup™ provides a historical trail of call sign ownership, which can be quite complicated and detailed. For example, look up K3DJ, and you will see a tangled mess of call sign transfers that only a computer could keep up with.
In addition to providing a historical trail of call sign ownership, my Unique Call Lookup™ also integrates Silent Key data into the search results, which is presented in a seamless, chronological order. My Unique Call Lookup™ is comprised of three areas:
- A heading, which also includes 8 randomly chosen photos of Silent Keys in my database, with each photo being a clickable link which performs a lookup on that individual.
- The historical listing of your searched call sign.
- Any pertinent Silent Keys that are related to your searched call sign.
Any call sign displayed in the search results that was not your desired call sign is presented as a link, which provides easy access to look up subsequent call signs. This is a sample shot:
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| Sample Search Results |
One of the recent modifications, which is visible on the page, is the grouping of the quarterly databases that begin in 2007. Since 2007, I have been making 4 databases per year, one for each calendar quarter, which provide a finer granularity for those interested in tracking call sign changes.
As time passed, these quarterly updates began to accumulate, and in some cases, extended the physical length of the search results considerably. This wasn't a huge issue now, but it would grow into one as more time passed. For convenience, I added two new buttons, "Open All", and "Close All", which, when clicked, will either open or close all the database years beginning with 2007.
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| Collapsed 4-Part Database Years |
Additionally, each "yyyy-1Q" section is individually clickable to open or close just that one year.
In the behind the scene arena, I spent a good deal of time indexing the numerous databases. The old method was to search through an entire database, which generally took about 20-25 hits before locating the desired call sign. My new method jumps to the appropriate "A", "K", "N", or "W" section of a database using file offsets. This technique reduces the number of hits per database by about half, which means faster searches. Although the size of the historical databases do not change from year to year, the quantity of databases does.
For every call sign search performed, over 34,000,000 call sign records are searched. Many databases are search multiple times in cases when a ham has a previous call sign. With such a large amount of data, it is crucial to keep search time at a minimum. I hope this database indexing technique will prevent accumulating databases from slowing down call sign searches.
Silent Keys
Over the past two years, I have been collecting and organizing Silent Key information, biographies, and photos. Needless to say, this task is huge. It could easily be a full-time job for a team of dedicated individuals. The ARRL sends me the Silent Key information that is sent to their office from around the country, and which is published monthly in QST magazine. This information consists of the basics; call sign, name, city, and state of each Silent Key.
Having "just the facts" about a Silent Key is adequate at best. Compare the following snapshots of Silent Key listings. The first displays just the basic information as delivered by the ARRL, and the others display the same basic information with the addition of birth and death years, a biography, and up to 3 photos.
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| Silent Key listing that shows the basic information as sent by the ARRL. |
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| A more complete Silent Key listing that was entered by me, and taken from an online obituary. |
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| Another example of a complete Silent Key listing that gives readers an idea of the ham's life. |
I think you can plainly see that the third snapshot is a real nice representation of W4AD, and it gives readers a sense of who the man was. This detailed listing allows readers to connect with and know the ham. I like it. My Silent Key database is home to over 17,500 hams. There is always room for one more, though.
As already stated, locating Silent Key (SK) information is a huge task that is well beyond the effort of a single individual. So why do I do it?
When I first began collecting and publishing SK information, it was a technical challenge that I needed to conquer. As time progressed and the challenge was conquered, I realized that every Silent Key was a person who had a family, a job, hobbies, and who laughed and cried just like you and I. I also saw that, with relative ease, how a ham can pass away with barely an acknowledgement of his life. Because of the vanity call sign program, a deceased ham's call sign is sometimes thought of in terms how long one must wait in order to apply for it. In essence, a Silent Key's life has been reduced to the value of his call sign with no regard for the person.
There are many websites that have Silent Key pages, or Silent Key memorials, and many clubs, organizations, and individuals do an outstanding job documenting their deceased ham friends and family. I wish there were more, however. I also wish that those of us who want to document our Silent Key brethren could organize ourselves in such a way that pools our resources in order to divide and conquer this enormous and solemn task. Recording our departed brethren's lives should not be a competition. It should be and needs to be a cooperative effort by those who are called to perform this honorable task.
In order to streamline the task of entering Silent Key information, I wrote a Windows program to assist me. This program has one function, and it is laid out accordingly. It takes but a few minutes to create a new Silent Key listing, and even less to edit an existing listing. Birth years are automatically pulled from a 1993 database that lists birth years for everyone in that database. Addresses are also automatically pulled from a database, beginning with the most recent FCC database, and then working back in time until a correct match is found. Many tasks are automated, but some do require me to choose the correct data.
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| N4MC's Silent Key Manager |
The photos, by the way, are automatically positioned inside the biographical text by my Silent Key Manager program, and I do not have to fiddle with positioning pictures or moving text around for appearance sake. This task is done automatically, which saves time, and also presents a more uniform look to the Silent Key listings. The highlighting of key words in the biographical text is also done automatically.
QST...QST...QST... The one thing that would help me the most is whenever you learn that a ham in your circle has passed away, to send me up to 3 photos and biographical information about the Silent Key. Be sure to include the SK's full name and call sign. I know you already have club meeting and field day photos somewhere in the cloud, so send them my way. If you already have a web page dedicated Silent Keys, please send me its URL. I am already set up to receive an email alert whenever a Silent Key's obituary hits the Internet. Many Silent Key obituaries do not list a ham's call sign, but using my nifty Silent Key Manager program, I can easily find their call sign.
And so, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
73,
Michael - N4MC
n 4 m c a t v a n i t y h q d o t c o m
