About Us

Welcome to the Bear Bait Radio Club. Let’s start out with a little history of our club. The club was chartered in January 2010 by a group of friends who share a love for amateur radio. Bear Bait Radio Club is an all-round club, but our focus is amateur radio education and promoting amateur radio.

This club got its start at Mt. Sabattis in Long Lake, NY in 2007. Two of our charter members, Tom Delasin and Scott Marriam came to Long Lake and setup an HF (High Frequency) radio with a modest antenna. That radio station made six contacts in four hours with two of the contacts being in Europe. Armed with that information they decided that Mt. Sabattis would be a good site for a future Field Day location. Bear Bait Radio Club has used this site as their Field Day location ever since.

Our President, Tom Delasin (WA2DAD), realized that there was a lack of amateur radio education in this part of the Adirondacks. He contacted several of his amateur radio friends, became certified as Volunteer Examiner and formed a Volunteer Examiner Team. Tom and the VE Team including Jan Just (W2JST) and Scott Marriam (WA2DTN) were now able to offer a technician class and exam session in the Long Lake area. The Bear Bait Radio Club has held this class every year in the fall for years and has generated interest in Amateur Radio in this area. Former Town of Long Lake Deputy Supervisor, Clark Seaman, is currently a member of our club and obtained his FCC license throughout class held in Long Lake. He has become an avid amateur radio operator and promotes amateur radio throughout the Long Lake area.

Our facilities are currently located within the Town of Clay Highway Department, which previously served as the Town of Clay Police Station. The old police dispatch room became our communications room. We currently have three HF working stations along with a VHF/UHF base station. The police station came with a 125 ft tower that we utilize for VHF/UHF repeaters and Mesh network. It also supports our HF long wires.

Our new headquarters has full back-up power, a full kitchen, bunk room with shower, locker room, training room and large classroom for technician classes. It is also used for kit building and Skywarn classes.

The Town of Clay supervisor, Damian M. Ulatowski, has been incredibly supportive. The town recently remodeled the old police station with new carpet, painted the walls, and replaced old ceiling tiles.

The Bear Bait Radio Club promotes amateur radio in the Syracuse area and surrounding counties along with Long Lake. We currently have thirteen VHF and UHF repeaters covering the local area and the Adirondacks. We have approximately sixty members here and across the United States.