Pathfinder's Dynamic Searches

Pathfinder Help: Main Page

 

One second after you enter a Target Callsign, Pathfinder consults a built-in prefix table to determine the associated DXCC country. If Pathfinder knows of a web-accessible callbook for this country, it presents a dynamic search button directly beneath the Target Callsign textbox.

As illustrated in the Screen Shot [68KB], Pathfinder labels the dynamic search button with the country's DXCC prefix and the letters "CB," an abbreviation for "callbook."

Clicking on the dynamic search button or striking the insert key invokes the the country-specific search. Note that some of these country-specific callbooks are databases, some are simple lists of callsigns that you must manually peruse, and some are hybrids. The Australian callbook, for example, is a database whose entries contain the operator's name, rendered as a hyperlink that navigates to the operator's address.

Dynamic Search is the automatic selection of a search based on the Target Callsign's DXCC country. This enables Pathfinder to query the 30+ country-specific callsign databases and callsign listings presently accessible via the web.

Searches Subfolder

The installation of Pathfinder 3.0 creates a subfolder named Searches within Pathfinder's application folder, and populates this subfolder with several QSL database searches as well as country-specific callbook searches.

You can replace Pathfinder's 12 built-in searches with any of these new searches by using the Load button on the Search Modification dialog box; click here for further instructions.

QSL Database Searches

  Site URL
     
  DB0SDX http://www.asp-profi.de/projects/hamradio/qsl/default.asp
     
  Deja News http://www.deja.com/
     
  eHam http://www.eham.net/callbook/
     
  IK4LZH http://qsl.425dxn.org/
     
  T77WI http://www.inthenet.sm/arrsm/query_manager.htm
     
  WM7D http://www.wm7d.net/
     

Country-specific Callbooks

Pathfinder's dynamic search mechanism automatically checks your Searches subfolder for the presence of a file whose name matches the Target Callsign's DXCC entity. If you've installed Pathfinder in the folder C:\Program Files\DXLab Suite Pathfinder, then entering VK9NS as the Target Callsign leads Pathfinder to check for the existence of

 

C:\Program Files\DXLab Suite\Pathfinder\Searches\VK.TXT

If this file exists, Pathfinder presents and labels the dynamic search button. Prefix to DXCC mapping is driven by contents of file

C:\Program Files\DXLab Suite\Pathfinder\Searches\Prefixes.TXT

New country-specific searches can be added by placing an appropriately named search file into the Pathfinder3 folder. For example, a copy of WM7D.TXT named K.TXT will cause Pathfinder to display the dynamic search button for American callsigns; clicking on the dynamic search button will search the the WM7D data base.

You may modify the prefixes.txt file, but should do so carefully; Pathfinder's parser is both intolerant and cryptic.

  DXCC URL
     
  4S http://www.dxlabsuite.com/rssl/4s5.htm
    http://www.dxlabsuite.com/rssl/4s6.htm
    http://www.dxlabsuite.com/rssl/4s7a_e.htm
    http://www.dxlabsuite.com/rssl/4s7f_l.htm
    http://www.dxlabsuite.com/rssl/4s7m_r.htm
    http://www.dxlabsuite.com/rssl/4s7s_z.htm
     
  9A http://www.hrs.agram.com/callbook.htm
     
  9M2 http://www.jaring.my/enrich/marts/9m2tmp.html
    http://www.jaring.my/enrich/marts/9m2trans.html
    http://www.jaring.my/enrich/marts/9w2trans.html
     
  9M6 http://www.jaring.my/enrich/marts/9m6trans.html
    http://www.jaring.my/enrich/marts/9m8trans.html
    http://www.jaring.my/enrich/marts/9w8trans.html
     
  BY http://www.dxlabsuite.com/by2hit/ebycall.htm
     
  C3 http://www.sta.ad/ura/qsl.htm
     
  CO http://www.infocom.etecsa.cu/www/frc/dire3.htm
     
  ER http://www.ournet.md/~arm/QSL.html
     
  ES http://www.dxlabsuite.com/es5aaw/es_callbook.htm
     
  EW http://www.dxlabsuite.com/ew2eo/cal_eng.htm
     
  EY http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/5873/callbook.html
     
  F http://www.ref.tm.fr/nomenclature/nomenclature.shtml
     
  GU http://www.guernsey.net/~sgibbs/amateur_radio/gu_calls.html
     
  HS http://hs-callbook.dhs.org/cgi-bin/search.cfm
     
  JT http://www.pc.mdlink.de/70223102/JTCALL.TXT
     
  LX http://www.dxlabsuite.com/lx1no/rl_callb.html
     
  LY http://www.dxlabsuite.com/lrmd/lycbk.txt
     
  LZ http://www.pc.mdlink.de/70223102/LZCALL.TXT
     
  OH http://oh-callbook.sral.fi/
     
  OL http://hippo.feld.cvut.cz/cgi-bin/getaddr
     
  OZ http://www.tst.dk/servlet/tstsog/tstsog.resultdetails?post=4
     
  PA http://www.dxlabsuite.com/pa3esz/nl_hams.html
     
  PY http://www.carioca.com/ham/manager.htm
     
  SP http://Tartarus.Phys.US.edu.PL/
     
  SV http://www.radiomagazine.com/call/call.htm
     
  T9 http://www.dxlabsuite.com/t93y/callbook.htm
     
  TF http://www.nett.is/~tf5bw/ira/cqtf/irafeltal.html
     
  TG http://members.xoom.com/CRAG/Miembros.htm
     
  VE http://www.rac.ca/callbook/
     
  VK http://www.aca.gov.au/database/radcomm/licence.htm
     
  VP9 http://www.bermuda-shorts.com/rsb/callsign.htm
     
  YL http://www.ltn.lv/~linda/hamlist.htm
     
  YO http://www.dxlabsuite.com/yo3kaa/yocall.htm
     
  YS http://www.milian.com/faf/miembros.shtml
     
  ZS http://www.sarl.org.za/callbook.htm
     

Kudos to Kurt OE1002419 for his contributions to both the general and country-specific search repository.

Note that some of the above URLs are unstable - they suddenly become inaccessible and then just as suddenly reappear; as of 10/3/99, both the 9A and OL callbooks are "down". If you notice that one of these has changed in what appears to be a permanent way, please send email to AA6YQ so that the search repository can be updated.

If you have questions or suggestions, please send them via email to the DXLab reflector.