After having allowed hams to use their QRZ as alternate name, I’m going to show you how to lookup people by their amateur radio call-signs (QRZ), even if they are not in your friends-connections (Friends or Friends of Friends)
Just type into the top facebook search bar:
People named “iw5edi”
this will bring you to the Facebook Open Graph search result page with the results.
This is an example result page for a lookup search for the callsign IW5EIJ :
Restrictions
Language and devices
Unfortunately there are still some restrictions, since this feature is powered by facebook graph-search feature that is available only on desktop computers using the english language settings.
For all other devices and languages this is not avabilable yet.
Apparently the search by callsign works with all devices and languages, but this it’s not true, since by typing the callsing will return only the Altenate names of those that are already in your network and will not lookup within all facebook users database.
I’ve tested this by looking up for a ham radio call sign that is not in my network and it works:
Partial Searches
As an additional restriction, looks like is not possible to make partial searches like “IW5ED*”, but is still possible to refine search by adding additional filters to your query, like city, interest, etc.
Reindexing time
I’ve not been able to understand if, after having added your alternate name, you can immediately be found with your call sign, or if this take time. I’ve added my call sign in mid July, it immediately appeared in the profile page, but not in search results. I’ve checked after one month and it worked.