Hi Bill, Thank you for such a detailed and thoughtful response.
Understood that QRZ XML API is a paid service. And yes, there are free services like HamQTH.com XML API. Three questions come to mind: a) What do you mean by "We also allow users to substitute an augmented ADIF log file"? b) I re-familiarized myself with the User Guide, section 11. Logging and did not see an answer to this question: To what purpose is an empty name field provided in the WSJT-X Logging dialog? c) Understanding that you are concerned with (among other things) feature creep in the core application, would you be willing for a compromise here? Rather than add that functionality into the main application, would you be open to an implementation of a plugin interface to allow third-party developers to add optional functionality for inserting the name field? That way you do not have feature creep in the main application, and users can decide for themselves whether or not to enhance their experience with WSJT-X. Thank you for your consideration. -- Dave Slotter, W3DJS <https://www.qrz.com/db/W3DJS> On Sat, Dec 5, 2020 at 8:24 AM Bill Somerville <[email protected]> wrote: > On 03/12/2020 14:25, Dave Slotter, W3DJS wrote: > > Bill and Joe: > > If I were to develop an integration with QRZ to automatically look up the > full names of people associated with a callsign that's getting logged and > populate the name field in the log window, would you be receptive to > receiving and incorporating said patch? > > Please advise, and thank you. > > -- > Dave Slotter, W3DJS <https://www.qrz.com/db/W3DJS> > > Hi Dave, > > thanks for offering to develop such a facility, but personally I feel this > is out of scope for WSJT-X. In general WSJT-X is a *source* of information > gathered on the air, up to and including logging QSOs. There are data feeds > consumed by WSJT-X, but not many and none with any real-time demand. We > optionally take a list of known users of the ARRL LoTW service so that > decodes of CQ calls from users can be highlighted. This is considered by > many to to be valuable information when selecting who to work because it > may reflect the likelihood of getting a QSO confirmed for award purposes. > We also allow users to substitute an augmented ADIF log file, perhaps from > a main station logging application, that also allows WSJT-X to highlight > potentially more valuable QSO partners with respect to the user's DXing > goals. Adding further data feeds, particularly when the information > acquired is available from many sources and hence subject to ambiguity, is > not a high priority. Furthermore once these sort of more arbitrary > information inputs are considered as worth implementing, then there are > many more that might have perceived equal or greater merit to some user > subsets. That could lead to WSJT-X mission creep into the domain of main > station logging applications, which to a greater or lesser extent already > do these functions well as part of their core capabilities. > > I note also that the QRZ.COM XML data feed is not a free service and > therefore may not be required by many users who do not think this sort of > information is worth the price. There will surely be others that request > the same information from free to use sources like the Hamcall service, or > perhaps from one of the variety of paid call-book services that they may > already be subscribing to. The scope of such a facility will quickly grow > far beyond what you propose, with an associated ongoing maintenance and > support burden that may detract from the core purpose of a weak signal > communications tool. > > 73 > Bill > G4WJS. > _______________________________________________ > wsjt-devel mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/wsjt-devel >
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