V55N3 was Fall (not Summer) 1977, following the 50+ year tradition. But Winter 77-78 (which should have been V55N4 per the old tradition) was given the V56N1 number, starting the numbering system that lasted until the last book was published 19 years later.
i admit i am confused. it still shows me as a General in the "Winter 1978" callbook. That makes me think it was actually printed in early 1977 because I upgraded to Advanced a month after becoming a General at the Chicago FCC Office sometime in the time frame of February - April 1977...
do you know how long the delay was before an upgrade tended to be published in callbooks back then?
I don't think there's a definitive answer, and certainly not one that spans all years. But relevant to your question, I became WN2FKS in May of 1976. My license was issued on 28 May 1976--I still have the original. And I appeared in the Fall 76 Callbook Supplement on page 5. So the delay was only a few months during summer of 1976.
Because Novice calls were issued sequentially, we can try and guess a little about the publication date by interpolating between the first and last Novice licenses in that issue. (This presumes that the rate of issuing calls was constant during the three-month period. That's not perfect for a number of reasons, but it's the best estimate we have.) WN2BIQ was the first Novice (in the 2nd district), and WN2GTO was the last. FKS was just about 75% of the way from BIQ to GTO. So if the callsign issuance hit 75% of the 91-day cycle on 5/28/76, then the cutoff date for publication of the issue was 6/19/76. (Again, this is just an estimate.) Since the publication date was officially 1 Sept 1976, that puts the delay between 5-1/3 months (if you just missed the previous issue) and 2-1/3 months (if you just made the cutoff date).
It's a similar long story, but I came up with almost the exact same estimate in 1987, trying to determine what the cutoff date was for the 1987 summer supplement, to see if it could be used to prove a Tech license issued before March 21, 1987. (The answer is yes.)
Now that doesn't help you solve your dilemma of when you upgraded to Advanced, but here's what can: submit a FOIA request to FCC. Here's how to do it.
- The FCC FOIA info page is
here. Follow the link near the top to "FOIA Online", and from there to "Create a Request."
- Construct your question precisely, to make it clear what you want, but enlarge the time frame to make sure you cover it.
- You are not exempt from fees, but if you frame your question clearly, then you should fit under the category of "the first 100 pages of the reproduction and the first two hours of search time shall be free of charge." So don't request a fee waiver.
I'd suggest a question like this "Request date of issuance of Advanced class amateur radio license W2ABC to John Doe. Estimated date is in 1977."
Expect to wait a few months for a reply.