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 Previous: FCC Amateur Radio Enforcement Letters for the Period Ending January 24, 2003 |  Next: VOA Site Restoration a Major Ham Radio Project |
NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 4, 2003--The famous flying horse logo of the Radio Amateur Callbook will rise from the proverbial ashes to soar again. A German firm, ITfM--Informations-Technologie für Menschen or Information Technology for People--has purchased the rights to the Radio Amateur Callbook from its former owners, who grounded the flying horse last summer due to flagging sales. The sale includes rights to the flying horse logo and the Callbook archive. ITfM inked the deal January 15.
 At ARRL Headquarters, Gudehus and Kamper hold a winter 1932 edition of the Callbook, which cost $1 at the time. Their new CD-ROM Callbook product for summer 2003 is expected to become available in April. |
"Our company is operated by radio amateurs for radio amateurs," say Heinz Kamper, DK4EI, and Thomas Gudehus, DB3ZX, who conceded that it took a while to clinch the sale in the face of some other competition. Kamper and Gudehus told ARRL they hope to have its spring 2003 edition of the Callbook CD-ROM out in time for Dayton Hamvention, which takes place May 16-18. The pair, longtime friends, also will have a booth at Dayton.
Radio Amateur Callbook dates back to 1920, and a desire to continue that venerable tradition was a factor in the decision by Kamper and Gudehus to take over the publication and keep it going. "It would be a pity if it ended," said Gudehus, who contracted with Watson-Guptill Publications in 1996 to produce the Callbook CD-ROM product and will continue to do so under the new ITfM regime.
In 1997, Watson-Guptill phased out its long-familiar telephone-book-size paper North American and international Callbook with its 75th edition, citing "rising costs and increasing demand for electronic publishing." Kamper and Gudehus left some 280 hard-copy editions of the Radio Amateur Callbook--11 boxes in all--at ARRL Headquarters to replace worn and damaged copies in the ARRL's Callbook archive and to fill some gaps.
Kamper and Gudehus say their Radio
Amateur Callbook CD-ROM for summer 2003 will be a new and improved
product, although they will stick with twice-yearly revisions. They're
promising "the most complete and most accurate" Amateur Radio call sign
database that will include not only North American and overseas listings--more
than 1.6 million in all--but information about DXCC entities, DX station QSL
managers and even details on recent DXpeditions. The new product will work just
as the previous one did, they said.
 A closer look at the original flying horse design, which depicted the mythical beast leaping a multi-wire "cage" antenna suspended above the globe. |
"Our main focus is to improve the CD-ROM database and bring amateurs the best source of information," Gudehus said. Their company already has produced CD-ROM products for the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) and for the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club (DARC) in Germany, so they're familiar with the process. They've also put out a German logging program called ARMap that includes detailed map information.
Kamper, a ham since 1969, was general manager for 22 years of DARC Verlag, the DARC's publishing arm. Gudehus is an electrical engineer and programmer. He was licensed in 1986 at age 16.
ITfM has contracted with InfoTech Internet Services (WC4H) in Miami, Florida, to be their distributor in the Americas. Under an arrangement with the former owner, they're also planning to make available by month's end a limited number of the winter 2003 Callbook CD-ROM.
As for the flying horse logo, it doesn't look quite the same on the new products as it did in the 1920s and 1930s but it remains readily recognizable. "It's not quite a retro design," Gudehus said, "but it may contain some elements of a retro design."
Both men are optimistic that their new flying horse Callbook product will take off, so to speak. "We certainly see a bright future for it," said Gudehus.
The new Radio Amateur Callbook CD-ROM will
continue to be available for $49.95. For more information, visit the Callbook Web site.
| Previous: FCC Amateur Radio Enforcement Letters for the Period Ending January 24, 2003 | Next: VOA Site Restoration a Major Ham Radio Project |
