OpsLog/internal/lookup/QRZ-XML-FIELDS.md

QRZ.com XML API — what a free account returns, and what a subscription adds

Captured 2026-08-02 on F4BPO's two accounts, same callsign looked up twice within a minute. Kept because the difference is the answer to a question that comes back regularly: "someone told me their logger gets the 6-character locator from QRZ without paying". It does not.

Free account — SubExp: non-subscriber

<Callsign>
  <call>F4BPO</call>
  <fname>Gregory</fname>
  <name>Salaun</name>
  <addr2>Veigy-Foncenex</addr2>
  <country>France</country>
</Callsign>
<Session>
  <SubExp>non-subscriber</SubExp>
  <Message>A subscription is required to access the complete record.</Message>
</Session>

Five fields. No grid, no lat/lon, no dxcc, no zones, no email, no street, no image.

Subscriber — SubExp: Sat Jul 3 21:45:38 2027

<Callsign>
  <call>F4BPO</call>          <dxcc>227</dxcc>        <nickname>Greg</nickname>
  <fname>Gregory</fname>      <name>Salaun</name>
  <addr2>Veigy-Foncenex</addr2><zip>74140</zip>       <country>France</country>
  <lat>46.103333</lat>        <lon>6.290000</lon>     <grid>JN36dc</grid>
  <ccode>97</ccode>           <land>France</land>     <class>2</class>
  <codes>E</codes>            <qslmgr>Lotw, Buro, Direct</qslmgr>
  <email>…</email>            <u_views>56966</u_views>
  <bio>4414</bio>             <biodate>2026-07-08 15:30:58</biodate>
  <image>https://cdn-xml.qrz.com/o/f4bpo/F4BPO_Greg_png.jpg</image>
  <imageinfo>800:1200:221041</imageinfo>
  <moddate>2025-08-24 19:55:31</moddate>
  <eqsl>0</eqsl>              <mqsl>1</mqsl>          <lotw>1</lotw>
  <cqzone>14</cqzone>         <ituzone>27</ituzone>
  <geoloc>user</geoloc>       <name_fmt>Gregory "Greg" Salaun</name_fmt>
  <serial>1000134</serial>
</Callsign>

Consequences

• A free QRZ account can never fill the locator, the coordinates, the zones or the e-mail. If someone reports a logger doing it on a free account, they are either using HamQTH (free, returns a 6-character grid) or they hold an XML subscription without realising it — the QRZ.com account and the "XML Logbook Data" subscription are sold separately. SubExp in the session block settles it in one request.
• Profile edits take a few minutes to reach the XML feed. Changing the grid on the website and looking the callsign up immediately returns the OLD value, which looks exactly like a stale cache. Re-test after a few minutes before suspecting the logger. (This cost an hour on 2026-08-02.)

Fields OpsLog does not use yet

qrz.go maps call, name, addr1/2, zip, state, county, country, grid, lat, lon, dxcc, cqzone, ituzone, cont, email, qslmgr and image. Left on the table:

• geoloc — user when the operator entered the position by hand, versus a geocoded value derived from the postal address. This is a direct statement of how much the coordinates and the locator can be trusted, and it is exactly the question the grid-precision rule in App.tsx tries to answer by comparing string lengths. Worth wiring if the locator ever misbehaves again.
• eqsl / mqsl / lotw — the station's QSL preferences as flags, more reliable than parsing the free-text qslmgr.
• nickname / name_fmt, class, moddate, bio.