WOOD ISLAND — There was a ghost hunt here a couple of years ago, and back in 2005, artists descended on the island for Fresh Paint Day.

People come to Wood Island for various reasons. Some, like Russ Lowell, came here with the U.S. Coast Guard in 1979. He was light keeper until 1982, and is now among the volunteers who ferry folks over to the island on tours offered by Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse.

Three days a week throughout July and August, weather permitting, the Light Runner departs Vine Landing in Biddeford Pool for this island, where fields of goldenrod bloom in the late summer and terns dip and dive overhead.

Once on the island, walkers transverse half a mile of boardwalk over woods, overgrown fields, swamp and rough terrain to get to the neatly clipped lawn around the lighthouse and keeper’s house.

On Sunday, the sun cast diamonds on the bright, blue ocean. Wood Island Light stood tall and proud facing the sea, as it has done for more than 200 years. It’s a quiet, solitary place, deserted most days, except for the tour boat, which can bring over about a dozen folks at a time.

A group of people from all over the East Coast joined the list of visitors to Wood Island Sunday, breaking the quiet by responding via radio to calls broadcast by The Wireless Society of Southern Maine.

WSSM, a group of amateur or “ham” radio buffs, formed in 2010. Members have broadcast from various locations ”“ last month some sent their signals out from Mount Washington, as part of Summits on the Air, an international effort to encourage broadcasts from mountainous areas.

This time, however, the broadcast was part of International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend, held the third weekend each August. About 300 radio clubs around the world were scheduled to participate.

Why broadcast from here?

“It promotes awareness of lighthouses,” said Tim Watson, the club’s treasurer. “And it’s a good reason to get a lot of people on their air.”

And that they were. An hour into the broadcast, members had already heard from about 50 contacts, Watson estimated.

For many years, ham radio operators had to know Morse code in order to be licensed to broadcast, but that requirement was dropped in 2006. Still, as members talked to other hams from Truro, Nova Scotia, Hershey, Pa., or some town in Delaware, their conversations were interspersed with a series of identifying numbers and letters that make up their call signs.

Sam Webber of Windham joined the club six or seven months ago, but became a licensed amateur radio operator in 1995.

“It’s a great hobby. There’s a lot you can do, this (event being one of them),” he said. “And you meet a lot of different people.”

Harold Rosenberg, a retired police photographer from Montreal who summers in Biddeford Pool, is a regular FOWIL volunteer. He decided to head to Wood Island when he learned the southern Maine club was meeting here ”“ he’s also a ham operator.

“This is a great site” for broadcasting, said Rosenberg, explaining the group was hearing from multiple contacts using only a modest antenna.

Watson explained the group was using a horizontal dipole antenna, and at that time of the morning, was broadcasting at 40 meters, or 7 megahertz. They planned to switch to a different band later in the day.

That morning, they’d heard from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, New Hampshire, other New England states, mid-Atlantic states, Ontario, Quebec, Delaware, Maryland and the Carolinas.

WSSM member Dave Wood looked at his surroundings as the calls kept coming in. There were sailboats offshore, the sun was shining and the breeze was gentle and warm.

“I’ve always wanted to come here,” he said.

Wood Island Lighthouse was constructed in 1808. The light was automated in 1986, and the Friends of Wood Island Lighthouse, a chapter of the American Lighthouse Foundation, was formed in 2001.

For some, the island connection reaches back generations. Bob Orcutt, who skippered the Light Runner on the trip from Vine Landing over to Wood Island Sunday, is a descendant of Thomas Henry Orcutt, who kept the light from 1886 to 1905.

Lowell, who was at the wheel on the return trip, remembers the years he and his wife Terry lived on the island, keeping the light that kept mariners safe.

Would he do it again, if he could?

“In a heartbeat,” he said.

For more information about the Wireless Society of Southern Maine, visit www.qsl.net/ws1sm. For more information about FOWIL, including Wood Island tour schedules, visit www.woodislandlighthouse.org.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, Ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.