John Fritze Jr. is a dedicated ham radio operator and a third-generation jeweler. He is passionate about both his avocation and his vocation — and on the cutting edge of each.

Hams have a saying as they try to inform the public that amateur radio operators use the latest technology: “We like to say, ‘It’s not your grandpa’s hobby anymore,’” says Fritze in this week’s Enterprise podcast.

Fritze’s real-life grandfather, Magnus Fritze, was the personal jeweler for the king of Denmark before coming to the United States where he worked for Georg Jensen Inc. in New York City before opening his own jewelry shop in Albany.

Magnus Fritze and his wife came to America because of “the fear of World War II,” said John Fritze. “A lot of my relatives did fight in the Danish underground to get Jews out of Europe safely … Some relatives were killed by the Nazis because they got caught,” he said.

Magnus Fritze’s son learned to be a jeweler from his father. In turn, John Fritze Jr. said, “I learned from my dad …. I learned very typically what you call the European style, which means, you know, 10 or 15 years of apprenticeship — very, very technical.”

But a decade ago, Fritze got involved in computer-aided design, or CAD.  “I’m a graduate gemologist with GIA,” he said of the Gemological Institute of America, a not-for-profit institution, based in California, dedicated to research and education in gemology.

“That’s  the benchmark in the world for gemology so basically it’s like a doctorate … Now we’re doing a lot of laser work …,” said Fritze. “It’s not your grandpa’s jewelry work anymore. I always tell people, my grandfather would roll over in his grave if he saw what I was doing.”

Fritze developed his interest in radio in the 1970s when, he recalls, “There was a big influx of the citizens’ band radio nationwide.” He recalled trucker songs and trucker movies and he joined the Albany chapter of a nationwide group of CB good Samaritans called REACT, which stands for Radio Emergency Associated Communication Teams.

“I was on the board of directors … We would help people who are traveling up and down the Northway and Thruway if they needed to find gas or something like that,” said Fritze.

A friend of his, who was a ham radio operator, told him at the time, “You’re going to become a ham radio operator … I can just tell.”

In 1978, Fritze got licensed through the Albany Amateur Radio Association and has since progressed to the top level and is a licensed instructor.

The Federal Communications Commission has set up three license classes; the higher the class, the more frequencies are available. Earning each higher class license requires passing a more difficult test. 

The entry-level technician license gives access to all amateur radio frequencies above 30 megahertz and lets the license holder communicate locally with limited privileges on the HF or “short wave” bands for international communications.

The general class license gives the holder some operating privileges on all amateur radio bands and all operating modes, opening the door to world-wide communications. The top level, extra license, conveys all available United States amateur radio operating privileges on all bands and all modes.

Hams got their name, Fritze explained, “because, during the railroad days when Morse code was being used, if you were a really poor sender of Morse code, they said you had a hand like a ham.”

Although it was meant as an insult, Fritze said, amateur radio operators have embraced the name. “We've kind of taken that to be a kind of a compliment now,” he said.

“Public service is a big part for me of amateur radio,” said Fritze.

Many hams start out “with a handheld, a little walkie-talkie, kind of thing,” which they use, for example, to help with fundraising walks or marathons. “You’re stationed along the path and you’re helping out with communications, making sure nobody falls down and gets hurt,” he said.

“As you grow with the hobby, you tend to get more and more expensive equipment,” said Fritze. Hams pay for their equipment themselves and also volunteer their time. “It doesn't cost the public a dime,” he said of their public-service work.

Fritze is the section manager for eastern NewYork, overseeing 15 counties.

“So, I deal with the National Weather Service, I deal with the New York State Department of Health, I deal with the Red Cross, I deal with, I don’t know, every single fire department, sheriff, ambulance,” he said. Westchester County, with the Indian Point nuclear plant, is one of the counties he oversees.

He went on, “We’ve become pretty locked into FEMA and also something called … Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency. We’ve been tasked with that in case there is an international hacker for the internet. As amateur radio operators, we’ve been tasked to come up with a plan “ to keep communication flowing.

Asked for an example of amateur radio operators helping in a modern emergency, Fritze said, if cell service went down, “We can be tasked to go into a hospital and help communications between hospitals.” Most hospitals, he said, have amateur radio stations so, in an emergency, they can help each other and safely transport patients and drugs among themselves.

Some of his public-service duties have been fun, such as helping schoolchildren communicate with astronauts. “A lot of people don’t realize that every astronaut is a ham radio operator,” said Fritze.

He had schoolkids communicate with an International Space Station for 17 minutes, picking it up over the Northwest Territory until “we lost it over the Azores,” he said.

The kids asked questions like what the astronauts ate, where they went to the bathroom, and what they saw out the space-station window.

Fritze expects people will have fun this weekend, June 24 and 25, as two local amateur radio associations — from Albany and Troy — host a national exercise at Thacher State Park. An annual field day has been organized since 1933 by the American Radio Relay League.

“For this particular exercise, they’re generally 30,000 hams nationwide that participate in it. So that’s about half of the ham population in the U.S.,” said Fritze. “It is the largest single emergency-preparedness exercise in the world.”

The premise, he said, is to set up stations under austere conditions, using portable antennas and non-commercial power such as generators, solar panels, or batteries.

From 2 p.m. on Saturday to 2 p.m. on Sunday, Fritze said, “We’ll try to make as many contacts as we can within the 24-hour period.”

The public is invited to watch — and to participate. Visitors can try amateur radio for themselves at a “Get On The Air” station, guided by FCC-licensed amateur operators.

“We can take somebody who has an interest, just maybe a little mic fright, you know, maybe never did this before,” said Fritze. “We sit them down in front of the radio, we have them make a contact and usually the look on their face is amazing. When they're talking to somebody in California or they're talking to somebody in Florida and it’s like there’s no wires between us.”

Asked if that wasn’t more thrilling before the era of cell phones, Fritze said that the difference between amateur radio and cell phones is, with a cell phone, you are talking to your friends, people whose numbers you dialed on purpose. “Amateur radio is making new friends,” said Fritze. “It’s a very nice distinction.”

And that friendship-making can have worldwide reach.

“Every single country has their own equivalent to an FCC …,” said Fritze. “As an amateur radio operator, I can pick up my radio at any point and I can talk anywhere in the world …. It doesn’t make any difference if they’re Russian, if they’re South American, if they’re African, if they’re Asian … they all speak English.”

He also said, “If a country decides they’re going to go to war or they’re going to make a mess out of something, they will shut down amateur radio communications … It’s only been the last few years that China has opened up communications worldwide. North Korea is one of the only countries where they do not allow amateur radio … They don’t want people to know what’s going on in the rest of the world.”

Over the years, Fritze has spoken to many Russians but, he said, “Right now, there’s a little bit of animosity because of the stuff that’s going on with Ukraine.”

However, he stressed, “The amateur community, we don’t really talk about politics … It’s not a political thing.” Rather, he said, hams talk about their families, the weather, and of course radio.

He went on, “When a country allows amateur radio, it allows people from all different backgrounds, all different types of religion, all different types of political background … to communicate back and forth. So it does promote international goodwill.”

****

The 2023 American Radio Relay League Field Day will be held June 24 and 25 at John Boyd Thacher State Park, 830 Thacher Park Road. It runs from 2 p.m. on Saturday to 2 p.m. on Sunday in the Hailes Cave area. The public is invited, free of charge, to visit and see ham radio in action.