QRZ.com Removes Russian Call Signs

[JohnyMac]

I just read that QRZ.com a great internet tool for ham operators, has just removed all Russian Call Signs from their database. Why?

https://www.dx-world.net/qrz-com-blocks-russian-callsigns/

Ham radio prides itself on being non-political. QRZ has been spouting for years that they are not political. Yet, they remove Russian call signs.

This is an excellent example of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) scores. Someone in the government (FCC?) leaned on QRZ to do this. Why? What does it matter if amateur radio operators speak with Russians or not?

[mattmcd]

Agreed, we're all big boys & girls now.  We can do our own research and make our own decisions. Don't like the passive aggressive paternalistic intelligentsia limiting free thought & info.

[Jackalope]

     Yeah, that's a bit much, I imagine the Belarus callsigns have been removed too.  I remember talking with Russians back in the late 70's and early 80's, and the conversations were very limited, mostly technical in nature.  They were forbidden to speak about the weather, because the weather information could be used for bombing runs.  I remember one conversation vividly, as I could hear a screen door banging shut and kids playing outside, it sounded much like a family here.

[JohnyMac]

I dropped Fred over at QRZ a line about this. The response was, "we are not censoring Russian call signs."

Okay, so I went in and started to look up past QSO's with Russian radio operators. About half came back as not a call sign. The other half came back with stations info.

Being old JohnyMac, I sent another email back to QRZ explaining this phenomenon and to QRZ's credit I did receive a response. In essence, "thank you for the input. We will pass it along to the team.

[Jackalope]

I've never been overly impressed with QRZ.com.  Too many good ol' boys on the site, and if you're not in their group, then you're prey.

[FeedingFreedom]

I've never been overly impressed with QRZ.com.  Too many good ol' boys on the site, and if you're not in their group, then you're prey.

They're the "HI HI OM's", and they think that radio technology never progressed beyond vacuum tubes. A few years ago we used to troll them horribly, which resulted in a huge list of words and terms being banned at qrz. It also resulted in a bunch of us having our callsigns removed from the database there.  Mine was not listed for about 5 years. Fred is a tool, and he's surrounded himself with like-minded people on staff and as admins. It's a good site if you just want to look up a callsign or buy/sell some used gear, but that's it.