hours in a room hunched over radio equipment.

The friends, eight from New York state and one from Ontario, are not here to see the sights or enjoy the warm weather.

They're amateur radio operators, or "hams'', who planned to spend the weekend contacting thousands of fellow enthusiasts around the world.

Members of the same club, they were taking part in an international competition in which hams contacted as many other operators as possible in 48 hours.

They chose Bermuda in the hope that other hams would prefer to speak to an unusual location rather than somewhere they've contacted before.

Having a novelty value would boost the number of contacts they made, they believed.

Starting at 8 p.m. Friday and ending at 8 p.m. last night, they planned to send constant morse code messages at the rate of 22 words a minute.

"The object was not to talk for long,'' explained club secretary Mr. Bob Nadolny.

"Normally we swap details of hobbies, the weather and family life, but for the contest it's just a serial number exchange.

"The object was for us to talk to as many people in 48 hours as possible.

"Bermuda is rarer than all the people in the States, so people will want to talk to Bermuda. It's more attractive for them to call us.'' The Island also stands to benefit, because every ham contacted by the team will be sent a postcard of Bermuda.

Backed by the Tourism Department, the mailing could result in 3,000 cards going out. The group is staying at White Sands hotel in Paget, where they set up radio equipment.

But for the 48-hour contest they used the equipment of Bermuda ham Mr. Larry Koolkin, of Grape Bay Drive.

"It's a fair level of concentration you need,'' Mr. Nadolny said. "You just put headphones on and shut the world off.

"Some of us have brought our wives. They think we're crazy.

"We're locked in a room for 48 hours and we give them our credit cards.''