Frequently Asked Questions
General
- Why do you need my username and password?
We don't need either, really. However, if you supply your call sign and password, this system will fetch and process your eQSL's without any further action from you. Also, by allowing us to retrieve your QSL's directly, we can be assured that all the QSLs are valid and can thus be counted in our global statistics, and you'll be able to make your QSL list publicly available. Neither the call sign or password are stored or reused in any way.
Nothing, really. I needed a picture and our big nosed bovine was the first I came across. If you have a better picture please that is available under the creative commons licensing, please feel free to send it to us. If we like it, we'll retire the cow.
Options
- What is the global database?
If you used one of the automated tools, you may have seen an option to add your QSL's to the global database. By default this option is not enabled. However, if you decide to contribute your QSL's, they will be included on the statistics page. In addition, you'll be able to refer to the KML data at any time without having to re-upload your information. Some ways you can use this may include putting a direct link to your KML file in a social networking profile, or even using the data in conjunction with Google Maps to imbed the same information into a personal home page.
You can use the tool as often as you like; repeated use will update the global database to reflect any new QSL's you've made since the last update. You can even use the automated tool to spider different eQSL sites (coming soon!) to effectively 'combine' their information into a single unified map. - Why can't I get this using the manual tools?
Creating an ADIF file with fraudulent information would be a trivial task for somebody with a basic knowledge of excel and a little free time. However, if the data comes directly from an eQSL coordinator, there is at least a reasonable expectation that the information is indeed valid, as it requires a two way acknowledgement in order for the QSL to 'count'. Still, nothing prevents you from taking the KML file that results from the manual generator, and hosting it on your own server. Conceptually though, only files that originate from the KMLmyQSL.com website should be considered 'official'. - Include my Call Sign? What's that mean?
If you check the box to 'Include my Call Sign', an additional place mark will be put at the coordinates associated with your call. It can be helpful should you decide to publish the KML for others to see. - Show Flight Paths? What's that mean?
Used in conjunction with the 'Include my Call Sign' checkbox, the 'Show Flight Paths' checkbox will cause lines to be drawn between your home QTH and your QSLs, in a fashion not unlike the maps you see at the back of airline magazines that show the airlines routes. Because of the large number of points it generates, it can add considerable size to the resulting KML file, so you may wish to use this option with caution of you have a very large number of QSL's.
Technical
- What is Google Earth? From Wikipedia: Google Earth is a virtual globe program that was originally called Earth Viewer and was created by Keyhole, Inc, a company acquired by Google in 2004. It maps the earth by the superimposition of images obtained from satellite imagery, aerial photography and GIS 3D globe.
- What is a KML file?
Keyhole Markup Language (KML) is an XML-based language schema for expressing geographic annotation and visualization on existing or future Web-based, two-dimensional maps and three-dimensional Earth browsers. KML was developed for use with Google Earth, which was originally named Keyhole Earth Viewer. It was created by Keyhole, Inc, which was acquired by Google in 2004. The name 'Keyhole' is homage to the KH reconnaissance satellites, the original eye-in-the-sky military reconnaissance system first launched in 1976.
The KML file specifies a set of features (place marks, images, polygons, 3D models, textual descriptions, etc.) for display in Google Earth, Maps and Mobile, or any other 3D earth browser (geobrowser) implementing the KML encoding. Each place always has a longitude and latitude. Other data can make the view more specific, such as tilt, heading, altitude, which together define a 'camera view'. - What is an ADIF file?
ADIF stands for Amateur Data Interchange Format, and is a standardized file format that is used by amateur radio software vendors to allow them to share information amongst each other. This site has the ability to import ADIF information generate KML files from the associated data. On a personal note, it's a shame the developers didn't use XML instead, since it's basically the de-facto standard for extensible markup. It would have also made the import function a heck of a lot smoother. But alas, it is not to be...
It's also a fantastic time waster. Seems like every time I fire up this program I lose an average of three hours of my life.
Troubleshooting
- I've submitted my information, but it's taking a long time to download.
Generating the KML is a time consuming process; much of the information is stored on various other public websites. Contact information is cached in a database to prevent unnecessary requests for information to third party websites, however, when that information is not available locally, it must be requested one piece at a time. If your QSL log contains a very large number of contacts, this can exasperate the problem. The best course of action is to be patient; it may very well take several minutes to generate your KML. - Nope, I'm pretty sure it's stalled out. What now?
Were not kidding here; it takes a while to generate the KML. The time it takes to download the KML is completely unimpressed by your ultra-high speed broadband connection. Please be patient. If it fails, it will be painfully obvious and will probably manifest itself as a 'page cannot be found' error. Just resubmit the request; since we *do* cache contact information, subsequent requests should be much faster. - One or more of my QSL's incorrectly ended up in the South Atlantic ocean. Why?
Most probably the parser logic choked on determining the coordinates for that QSL, and it ended up being recorded as 0° latitude and 0° longitude. This shouldn't happen often, but if it does, please let us know what call sign it choked on so that we can improve the parser. - You suck. Your place marks are way off.
Hey, garbage in, garbage out. Determining the coordinates to use is based upon the best available information. For operators in the United States, most coordinates are based off from the US Census Bureau's TIGER Mapsurfer data, and are usually accurate to within a few hundred feet. However, they are based on the 1998 data set, and so some locations might not be included.
In those cases where address translation fails, coordinates are determined by translating from the grid squares of Maidenhead Locator System to degrees of longitude and latitude. In these cases, the overall accuracy is entirely dependent on the precision of the grid square value. All grid squares should be accurate to at least the second order, and many are accuracy to the third order, so in the majority of cases it shouldn't be off by more than a couple of miles. Of course, overall accuracy decreases the closer you get to the equator, since those grid squares are physically larger.
Naturally, if the address or grid coordinate information stored in the applicable online databases are incorrect, its inaccuracy will be reflected in the location of the place mark, regardless of the method used.
About the Site
- Who are you? What is your association with amateur radio?
I am an IT systems administrator turned part-time software developer, currently in a self-employment mode. I currently reside on the west coast of Ecuador in South America, about midway between Colombia and Peru.
I don't have any direct connections with radio communications, either as a hobby or a profession. My father however, operates a station from the great state of Minnesota, which he has done for the better part of 25 years, save for a brief hiatus somewhere towards the end of that period. I grew up with the sounds of static in my ears, and while the hobby itself never did much for me, it did spawn an interest in computers that has existed since childhood. - Your site doesn't use SSL. Doesn't that mean my call sign and password are transmitted in clear text?
Yes it does. But then again, none of the other sites use SSL either, so what’s the difference? - What's makes this site tick?
The site itself is written entirely in PHP5. All of the content is XHTML 1.0 (Strict) and CSS 2.0 (or it was last time I validated it, anyway). The underlying server is FreeBSD and Apache 2.2.3 with OpenSSL. The site also utilizes mySQL 5.0.27 for database storage. The server is located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States of America. - I'm the owner of a site your mining your info from, and I'm not pleased.
Hi. Nice to meet you. I hope you have found this site interesting enough to keep reading.
Before you pull the plug, hear me out; first, it's my belief that all of the information here should be considered public record. My basis for this is the fact that your site, like many others, publishes search functions as a feature of the website. What this site does isn't really any different than if a visitor performed all the lookups on their own; it just automates and standardizes the process.
I have taken great care to develop the site in such a manner not to generate queries at an unreasonable rate. If the site is hitting too hard, please accept my apologies and invitation to assist in developing a method to reduce the amount of traffic (such as XML-RPC or RDF); putting a strain on your site serves neither of us.
There are some chunks of information which I acknowledge don't belong to me, and as such I have no right (legal or moral) to display it without permission. In these cases, I've chosen to provide only a brief synopsis, or image thumbnail, with a link to the original. I will strive to give proper credit to the sources where possible and reasonable.
In the end, I feel confident that both the site and the manner in which it operates have a high 'signal-to-noise ratio', and follows the spirit of sharing and exchange on which the foundation of amateur radio is built.
