Amateur radio operators across the country descended upon Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve in Lloyd Harbor this weekend for an annual Field Day event.

Mel Granick, of Syosset, says the goal is to test emergency communications using short-wave radios.

"We stay on the air for 24 hours and we transmit and exchange messages as we would in the event of an emergency," says Granick.

Amateur or ham radio has been around for more than a century, and has been proven to be the most reliable way to communicate during emergencies if all else were to fail.

Ham radio operator Dennis Boyle says the communication system proved useful during Superstorm Sandy, the Sept. 11 attacks and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

"It's just amazing to be able to pick up a phone and call someone in New York and you can patch them through on the radio to someone in Puerto Rico and you can just hear the love that the person's alive," says Boyle.

He says all you need is a radio and an antenna.