Ham radio operators take to the air at annual Field Day

A group of about a dozen amateur radio operators from Long Island had already contacted dozens of others from around the country just minutes into American Radio Relay League Field Day Saturday afternoon.

Set up in a 19th century barn on the grounds of the Longwood Estate in Ridge, the licensed operators from two Long Island clubs — Radio Central Amateur Club and The Order of the Boiled Owls — aimed to make as many contacts as possible over the next 24 hours.

“We want to make more than we did last year when we had more than 2,200 contacts,” said Bob Ciappa of Farmingville, a member of both clubs.

The American Radio Relay League, a national ham radio organization based in Connecticut, has held the Field Day event annually since 1933. Each year, more than 35,000 temporary stations are set up across the United States and Canada for operators to contact each other.

During public portions of the event, the groups perform demonstrations of their emergency response capabilities and hope to inspire a new generation of ham radio operators.

The local group spent Friday afternoon in the rain setting up a half-dozen antennas, as tall as 40 feet, on the grounds of the Brookhaven Town property. With the technology they’d put together for the weekend, there’s no limit to where the hobbyists can reach.

“Last year, [one of us] spoke to an astronaut on the International Space Station who happened to be a ham,” Ciappa said, pointing to a satellite antenna they’d set up.

In the first 10 minutes on Saturday, the local clubs had traversed the nation, making contacts in places as distant as California and Montana. Ciappa noted the group has been recognized for making the most contacts in the country seven of the past eight years.

The exchanges are brief, as they swap call signals using voice, morse code and digital signals, and log the contact into a computer. No internet is used.

Ciappa, an electrical engineer, said his interest in amateur radio was passed on from his father as a young boy. Others got into it later in life.

Bill Botjer, a patent attorney from Center Moriches, began transmitting when he moved to Long Island in his early 40s.

“I grew up in Manhattan where I couldn’t do this,” Botjer said. “When I got here I said, ‘It’s now or never.’ ”

He ran an antenna wire from his house, and a hobby was born.

“Even with a much less sophisticated system, I’ve [contacted] Mongolia, Nepal, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan — every type of 'stan,' ” he said with a laugh.

“We say it's almost like going fishing,” Ciappa added. “You throw a line into the water and you don't know what you're going to pick up.”

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.