Callbook and Callsign FAQ
A1: The single most useful piece of information is the callsign. After that, it would be name, years licensed, and address. This is because almost all callbooks are arranged in alphabetical callsign order. That means it's easy to find someone if you know their callsign and the year they were licensed. It's a little harder if you don't know the year--you must look in multiple books then. It's MUCH more difficult if you know the name, but not the callsign.
I liken this to using a telephone book to find someone. If you know their name, it's easy to find them. But if you only know their phone number and want to find their name, it's very difficult. The information is in there, but it's not arranged in a useful way. Callbooks are like telephone books in numerical order.
There are a few exceptions to this. Very occasionally, someone has published a callbook that has alternate indexes. The early government books had listings by name (early years) or state/town (later years, up to 1931). Buckmaster published name directories (indexed by name) and geographical directories (indexed by address) in 1982, 1983 and 1985. The ARRL did the same in 1984. If the information you need is covered by these dates, it's easy. But if you are looking for someone in any other time period, the only solution is to search each and every page for the name.
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