Young electronics fans at Van Antwerp build ham radio equipment from spare parts in May 1967. From left are Fred Schempp, George Abrahams, Grant Fullman, Edward Boucheron, Martin Chader and Frank Ayers.
Jane Cary and Fred Schempp were both part of a communications boom in Schenectady in 1967.
Cary talked to local friends on the mobile telephone tucked under the dashboard of her Chevrolet Impala convertible. Schempp used a ham radio to reach folks all over the world. Cary could talk on her mobile phone without any worries about breaking the law in ’67. And texting was still decades away. Schempp and about 14 of his friends at Van Antwerp Junior High School in Niskayuna were in the ham radio brigade. The electronics fans had been assembled in February 1967 by Robert Brown, who taught industrial arts at the school.