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My online course in PHP and MySQL has gone very well. I've already converted
the Ham Domain database from a text file to a full MySQL database table. I'm also developing a script that you will be able to install on your ham Web page so that you can have a different set of links show up on your page each time you use it. It will be using the entries in my Ham Domain database for the URLs. Stay tuned. I will announce it when it is ready. Contact me if you want to let me use your site as a guinea pig for this script. |
| I incorporated a new function into the script for the ham domain table (below). You will see that all of the zero calls come up with the slash zero (Ø) in them. |
| I'm working on a project that you might be able to help me with. If you have a good picture of your tower, could you please upload it at http://www.wb4aej.com/antennas. I'll share the results of my work with anyone who provides me a tower picture that I actually use. Thanks. |
| Go Daddy sent me a Go Daddy T-shirt as thanks for including their service in this article. I'll have to get a picture of me wearing the T-shirt to include on my Web site. Thanks very much to the folks at Go Daddy. |
| I've created a 'for fun' page. It's a 'Worked All States with Ham Radio Plates page. Check it out and send me a photo of your ham plate if you'd like me to add it. |
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Would you like to have an email address that reflects your name and call sign (john@kn4ayj.com or jill@wa2zyf.net)? Are you tired of piggybacking your call sign onto someone else's site (http://www.freepage.com/wg4fnw or http://www.qsl.net/wg4fnw)? Wouldn't it be cool to have a site of your own (http://www.wb4aej.com, www.wa4zzq.net, or http://www.n7qvc.com)? Was the mitigating factor the cost of the service provider? That is not an obstacle any longer.
You will have email access both with your client (such as Outlook Express) and on the WWW (go to http://email.<yourcall>.com (or .net, .org, etc.)).
What if you could do all of this for less that ten dollars per year? Would you be interested? If you are one of those who is both a ham radio operator and are computer literate, please read on. This could be a fun project. You'll get to put your knowledge of ham radio up on the Internet for others to share besides having an email address that reflects your handle and callsign.
By utilizing two services, you can have almost the full functionality of a Web hosting provider's Web site (it won't do interactive items such as PERL), but the results can be very good. And none of these providers will put banner ads up on your site. Additionally, if you should ever decide to upgrade your site to a full hosting provider, your domain name will already be registered. Also, please read the FAQ page. If you have any questions not covered on the FAQ page, you can use the Question form.
By combining a pay service known as Go Daddy and a free service known as QSL Net (or any Web page service that can provide you with a free Web page), you can arrive at your name and call in an email address and your call sign in a unique URL.
This is a little complicated and I will not try to go into the theory of what is happening. All you need to do this is a sense of adventure, a willingness to try something new, a credit card that can cover a ten dollar online charge, your computer, an Internet account, and a Web page that you will design on your own. Beyond that, just follow the yellow brick road (directions). Also, please read the FAQs as they have a lot of good information in them.
It will be an advantage to other ham radio operators for you to register your domain. Have you heard the story of N7QVC? He nearly lost the right to use his call domain of http://www.n7qvc.com because a lawyer (representing a company operating under a name that was a subset of his call sign) was going to go after him for infringement of his client's trademark. With the help of the ARRL and support from other ham radio operators (who wrote letters to protect our rights), the lawyer saw the error of his ways and declined to take action. The more of us that register our domain names on the Internet the more commonplace and understood the ham domain will be. So by doing this, you will be helping other ham radio operators protect the right to use their call signs on the Internet. Read about what happened in N7QVC's own words.
I will not attempt to teach you Web design. I will show you how to use Javascript to make the URL of your free page change the URL of your site to your call sign domain. We will do that after all of the setup work is done. Additionally, there are a large number of resources on the Internet and other support material that will assist you in creating content for your page. And there are other good sites on the Internet to help you put your page together. If you know of some good sites that teach Web page design, send me feedback. I'll add them to the FAQs.
Could you please take a minute to add your callsign to the site visitor log? I just like to know who is stopping by.
If you like this article, I'd appreciate your putting a link to it on your Web site. Please link to my site.
As you can see from the following table, the ham domain is growing on the Internet. There are currently 2424 entries in the ham domain table shown below. And I'm confident I've only got the tip of the iceberg. Only a very small number of them were done with the methods and/or services used in this article. I last updated the table on February 16, 2008.
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