Ham Radio Software
Search Tips

While searching for ham radio software on the Web I found, as I'm sure you have too, that you can easily spend hours if not days looking ... sometimes fruitlessly.

Some sites attempt to list every possible ham software out there. The list is virtually impossible to keep up to date. You end up trying dead links or links to software that has been obsolete for a long time.

Having not found what you were really looking for, you end up using the software that a friend or other hams are recommending.

Good news! You can make your search for amateur radio software more effective (produce more relevant results) and more efficient (make better use of your time).

Here are some tips on how to use the Google™ search engine.

Quoted Search

Many of you already know that you can get much more accurate results if you encase your search expression (two words or more) between quotes.

For example, if you look for the three word expression on Google™, it will report it has found "about 14,500,000" pages containing the words ham, radio and software, either contiguous or scattered about on the page.

Ham radio software unquoted search result.

However, if you use a quoted search for " ham radio software ", Google™ will return the first 10 results of about 16,600 pages (!) on the Web where it has found the exact expression.

Ham radio software quoted search result.

That does not mean that most of these pages will be mainly about amateur radio software!

Zero In On A Sub-Set

But, let's say you are really looking for antenna software for modeling or designing your next homemade antenna.

Go to the very bottom of the first page of results and click on the option labelled "Search within results".

Ham radio software search within results.

Here is what the new query will look like.

Ham radio software query within results.

Antenna software (without the quotes) will return a sub-set of about 2,910 pages while "antenna software" (between quotes) will return a highly targeted sub-set of about 186 pages with the exact expression!

Ham radio software result for antenna software sub-query.

Now you've really made life easier for yourself. You only have to peruse 186 pages! ;-)

That is how you can use Google™ to find the pages that contain the exact expression " ham radio software ", or a specified quoted sub-set thereof.

For a bigger challenge, try this technique on ham radio freeware!

Speaking of freeware, try Linux ham radio software. You'll love the free open source concept!