The Callbook

I was doing an online search for something relating to my ham radio callsign last week and I got one research result I wasn't seeking.

There, right at the top of the page, was a listing that included my callsign and surname. But it was from 1961. It was a link to an online, digitized version of The Callbook.

A little background on The Callbook. It was a printed book that listed ham radio operators, their callsigns and their home addresses. In the pre-internet days, it was your source for a mailing address if you wanted to receive a QSL card from the other ham. You looked up her/his address, sent them a card (and maybe a SASE if you really wanted to enhance your odds). And, then waited for the reply.

Sometimes a card came right away; other times it might take weeks or months. 

You might think of The Callbook as being like an old printed telephone book - one without phone numbers and including amateur radio callsigns and license classifications instead.

The search result prompted me to go downstairs and search through some of my archives in the ham shack. I found a version of The Callbook, ca 1977. 

I thumbed through the '77 book, expecting to find myself but I wasn't there. Funny, considering I passed my license in '75 (or was it '76). In either case, I didn't even make the special "hold the presses" pages at the very back of the book!

I probably showed up in the 1978 edition. But my dad was clearly listed in the '77 (at the home where he and my mother lived for 46 years).

Likewise, the listing from 1961 was my dad's, too. As I mentioned previously. he held the callsign K4KYN long before I did, but he wasn't the first. There was actually a previous K4KYN before dad (but that's another story for another blog post). 

By 1961, he had relocated to East Tennessee (and, in fact, married my mother that winter). But his Callbook listing shows his parents' address - the Gary family farm just north of Memphis.

What a nice bit of unexpected family nostalgia.  And thanks to whomever did the tedious work to digitize the 1961 hardcopy. And thanks to all those individuals who worked so hard to put The Callbook together back in those days.

Back to the '77 book, I remember using some gift money to purchase it. Or maybe I purchased a later one that I didn't find in my files. There was an earlier one from the early 60s in my desk. Clearly, dad bought that one. 

In any case, this digest was a treasured part of any ham shack if you were into collecting QSL cards (as I was during that era). You'd finish "working" the other station and look 'em up in The Callbook. And if you were lucky, voila, there was the other operator's address. 

Of course, the minute the book went to press, it was dated. Some folks relocated. Or relinquished their licenses. Others passed away.

Also, there were new licensees coming on board all the time. Still, unless you wanted to ask the op to send their address via morse code, it was the best bet.

JG