MONSON — Ernie Copeland’s wife and children have learned to tune out the noises and voices that come from a small room off the dining area in their home.

The voices speak rapidly, many in foreign tongue, often interrupted by a series of Morse codes and static-like noises that stem from a dozen or so radios, monitors and scanners.

Like the more than 3,500 ham operators in the state, Copeland has the world at his fingertips. Copeland was always intrigued by amateur radios, but it wasn’t until he was laid off from his sawmill job in Greenville in 1989 that he fully pursued the hobby. A friend gave him a citizens’ band radio to help pass the time away while he was unemployed. Later, he found another friend who had as much interest in amateur radios as he did. Together, they studied and mastered the Morse code to obtain their licenses.

“It’s a learning hobby, that’s the biggest reason I got into it,” said Copeland. “Ham radio operators are usually on the leading edge of experimental stuff like bouncing a signal off the moon and back,” he said. They’ve also been instrumental in satellite communications, he said.

Copeland, who also has a mobile unit in his vehicle, has since advanced from a Novice to the top class of Extra. He’s a member of the Piscataquis County Amateur Radio Club.

Most of Copeland’s equipment was purchased at “hamfests,” a mecca for amateur radio operators looking for a bargain. The hobby can be as expensive as you want it to be, according to Copeland. He operates his equipment using a 30-feet tower attached to his roof.

The walls of his radio room are adorned with colorful maps, certificates of achievement and calling cards sent from his contacts throughout the world. There’s even a postcard from the space shuttle Atlantis astronauts, who responded to Copeland’s call and gave him a signal report while they were in outer space. “You can talk all over the world if conditions are right and you’re on the right bands,” said Copeland.

Each ham operator is assigned call letters by the Federal Communications Commission to identify themselves to others on the airwaves. Copeland’s is N1GTY.

In introducing himself over the air, Copeland uses his call letters followed by November, One, Golf, Tango and Yankee, representing a phonetic alphabet that is widely used and internationally accepted by ham operators. When atmospheric conditions are bad, the Morse code is used to talk with other ham operators via a series of dots and dashes.

While Copeland has yet to hear any distress signals from a foundering ship at sea, he does periodically check the well-being of a trucker friend on the highway. Contacts with fellow ham operators have taken him via the airwaves to Colombia, Brazil, Australia, the Bahamas, Scotland, Canada, the Netherlands, Poland, West Indies, Bulgaria, Sweden, Mexico and Puerto Rico, and several states.

A former serviceman himself, Copeland knows how useful ham operators are for the military on foreign soil. While in Vietnam, his only voice contact with his relatives back home was through ham operators. He said a military radio operator would reach a ham operator, who would connect his ham station to a telephone line, which allowed his relatives to use their own telephone to talk with him.

Ham operators are also useful in local emergencies. Harry Webber, Piscataquis County’s emergency management agency director and a ham operator, said he relied heavily on ham operators during the 1987 flood and in similar near-disasters.

“They serve as your eyes when you are unable to reach certain areas,” he said.

For instance, he said George Dean of Brownville and Howard Weymouth of Abbot were able to provide him information about flooding even quicker than the sheriff’s department.

Webber, who entered the hobby more than a year ago, said he’d always been interested in radios, but he never particularly liked the Morse code. “I just wanted to talk,” he said.

Many of the ham operators in the state belong to the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES), which is recognized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), affiliated with the Maine Emergency Management Agency. The members of these organizations volunteer their time to the state and local governments to provide radio communications in times of emergency, according to Webber. The groups are required to participate in training sessions.

If the president were to invoke his war emergency powers, members of RACES would become limited to certain frequencies, while all other amateur operations would be silenced, according to Webber.

Webber, county coordinator for both groups, said members of RACES will take an active role in a state flood exercise on March 8.

Ham operators also provide comfort for travelers, according to Webber.

“You can drive from here to Portland and talk with someone all the way, there’s repeaters all across the state,” he said.

A repeater, also known as a message booster, is a tower that receives a radio message and bounces it back to any mobile or base unit.

“It’s nice to know that almost anytime of day or night, someone will answer you,” said Webber.