QRZ was founded in 1992 by
Fred Lloyd, AA7BQ
as a spinoff of what was once called the "Callsign Project",
a cooperative effort designed to obtain and distribute FCC database tapes.
The "Callsign Project" was born on the internet newsgroup rec.ham-radio
(later rec.radio.amateur.misc), and it's initial sponsor was Rusty,
Carruth, N7IKQ, who eventually turned it over to Fred when he
became unable to continue the effort.
The "project" part of the callsign project consisted of obtaining
the FCC data tapes and then making copies of it for distribution
to other interested parties. Fred's first experience with the
callsign project was largely uneventful since the total distribution
consisted only of about 40 copies. At the time, each person requesting
a copy of the database would send the Fred a blank tape along with
$20 in an SASE. The $20 was to help to recover the cost of
obtaining the data from the FCC, which at the time cost over $700
for the two large 9-track (12-inch) mainframe tape reels.
Soon, six months had gone by and again it became necessary to obtain a
fresh set of FCC tapes. Tired of spending his spare time making tape
copies, Fred began to wonder about CDROM - a new but emerging universal
format. It didn't really seem possible since the cost of mastering a
CDROM (about $2500) was prohibitive given the small number of potential
internet customers from past experience.
Thinking 'outside the box', Fred began wondering if perhaps there
might be an existing shareware CDROM already in publication that
possibly had enough unused or spare space to accomodate the callsign
data. At the time, the total size of the FCC database was only
about 50 megabytes compressed, so it sounded like there might
be a possibility.
With this in mind, Fred contacted a well known CDROM shareware publisher,
Bob Bruce at the now defunct Walnut Creek CDROM,
and popped the question: "Do you think you might have an existing CD
with 50MB of free space available?". To Fred's surprise, Bob
replied with "Why don't we just put together a Ham Radio CDROM?
Just send us the material and we'll press it.". With this simple
exchange on the phone, Fred started working on his first CDROM
project. Shortly thereafter Fred decided on using the ham radio
shorthand term QRZ as a name for the new product. It was
short, catchy, and 100 percent ham radio!
Suddenly, worrying about how to keep the data as small as possible to
fit on a shareware CDROM gave way to another, unexpeced problem: How
were we going go fill up a 650 MB disc? Next, with the help of John
Moore, NJ7E, a DOS-Based lookup program was developed (in about a week)
and the QRZ database format was created.
To help fill up the disc, Fred went out to what could be called
the old internet (the World Wide Web did not yet exist)
and gathered every bit of ham radio shareware that could be
found at the various FTP sites that existed at the time.
He packaged this along with several years worth of ham radio newsgroup
messages into a collection which was to become an integral part
of the first edition of the QRZ CDROM.
Neither Fred nor Walnut Creek had any idea of how many of the
new ham radio CDROM's would be sold. Walnut had printed 1000 copies
of the new CD and privately Fred thought that this was probably
a bit over-optimistic. After all, the last "callsign project"
distribution had garnered only about 40 customers! Despite this,
Fred jumped in and bought 100 copies anyway, probably because
he liked seeing his name on the cover, and also because they just
seemed like a cool product.
It took about 2 months to sell those initial 100 copies which went for
$19.95 each. After that, the sales seemed to slow down quite a bit.
At the time, to order a CD a potential customer had to first send a
personal check by mail. Fred has always believed in hams and has
always accepted their checks without first cashing them at the bank.
It is perhaps a fine testament to amateur radio that of the hundreds of
such checks that Fred has accepted, not one has ever bounced!
Meanwhile, unknown to Fred, back at Walnut Creek CDROM they were having
a hard time keeping the new QRZ CDROM on the shelves. They were soon
sold out of the first 1000 copies and had to order a second printing.
Within a few months, the sales had topped the 5000 unit mark and Fred
was now getting e-mail from new CDROM users from all around the world.
This activity generated a lot of excitement and soon Fred (a software
engineer by profession), started to work on the second edition and a
new Windows callsign program. Three years later Fred wrote the Windows
95 version of his program and QRZ became the first ham radio CDROM to
ship with full 32-bit "designed for Windows 95" lookup software.
During this same period the World Wide Web was born and on October 28,
1993, QRZ went online with http://www.qrz.com and a web based callsign
lookup server. QRZ holds the distinction of being one of the first
5,000 websites in existence (there are many millions today).
Today, in the fall of 2005, 25 editions and over 250,000 copies of
the QRZ Ham Radio CDROM have been sold worldwide and it has earned the
title of the #1 bestselling amateur radio software product of all
time. The QRZ CDROM has been used on all 7 continents (yes, including
Antarctica) has been carried on the Space Shuttle, the MIR space
station, and is in use today aboard the International Space Station.
QRZ remains a small business that is run by Fred and is housed in a
spare room of his home. Fred still works his daytime job as a systems
architect and web design consultant. Fred is extremely grateful for
the support of the many friends that he has made on the internet and
looks forward to making many more in the future.
And what do the letters QRZ stand for? Well, back in the days when
radio telegraphy was widely used, QRZ was a shorthand code which
meant "Who is Calling me?" It's still used today, even by voice
operators during contests or when they simply didn't hear the
complete call.
If you'd like to contact Fred by email, please write to
flloyd@qrz.com .
Thanks for visiting the site and for your support, both past
present and future.
