Braintree Radio Group Offers Window on World [VIDEO]

From a room on the lower level of Braintree's Watson Building, they can touch the whole world, even beyond it.

Radio allows them to chat with astronauts orbiting the globe, check in with fellow enthusiasts in Armenia and Florida, and help coordinate emergency management right here in Braintree.

They are the members of the K1USN Radio Club, formed out of the Braintree Radio Club and led by longtime ham radio operators Bill Needham and Harold Pugh.

For nearly two decades, Needham and Pugh have been offering federal radio operator licensing tests, and also promoting their passion. Each Saturday morning, until noon, the group's 20 or so members gather at the town building next to , making connections with people across the country and around the world.

They also welcome visitors, to show them how the radios work, from local bands like VHF to high frequency communications, as well as the different classes of a Federal Communications Commission radio operator license – Technician, General and the highest designation of Amateur Extra, which includes scoring high on a written test and in the past included creating 20 words a minute out of morse code.

"I was always fascinated with this stuff," Needham said. He earned his license in 1976, after listening to shortwave radio as a kid. Pugh got his in 1962, following in his father's footsteps.

"A lot of people like to collect stamps and coins, it's the same thing as this," Pugh said.

In the case of ham radio operators, the collection is people, or rather connections with them, for just a moment or even an hour, documented in a computer database and also in postcards that are sent back and forth around the world.

Pugh recalls one instance where he joined a group of Rockland students who spoke over radio waves with their teacher, on sabbatical in Antarctica. "They just couldn't believe it was happening," he said.

Modern technology makes such connections easier. Computers, for instance, can now log call-sign and location information automatically, and radios can connect via transmitters to the Internet, finding another person even if the Web and other communications are down locally.

One recent afternoon, Jimmy from New Port Richey, FL came over the speakers and into the club's room, filled with radio paraphernalia dating back to World War II, photographs and one wall consumed by a history of Braintree's own Thomas Watson, a reminder of when the space also housed for a short time the archives of the .

"Ham radio has brought me a lot of pleasure over the years," Jimmy said to Needham, before asking him again where he was located.

Ten miles south of Boston, Needham said, following up with specifics, phonetic-style. "Braintree – Brain in your head, tree in your backyard."

Back when Needham and Pugh operated out of the U.S.S. Salem in Quincy, they started a weekend radio event with fellow operator Robert Callahan that went from eight groups the first summer to more than 100 today.

Known now as International Museum Ships Radio Weekend, operators work 48 hours straight in some cases, trying to log as many connections as they can. In the ham radio field, getting all 50 states, or more than 100 countries (Braintree's club claims both accomplishments), leads to awards and bragging rights.

During the weekend, museums and ships from as far as Belgium and Corpus Christie, TX, and as close as Scituate and Cape Cod participate. "It just kind of snowballed," Pugh said.

"When you're operating, you're talking to guys who are on a German U-boat, who used to be radio operators on a German U-boat during World War II," Needham said. "It's really interesting."