CHAPTER XXVII 



OUR WIRELESS STATION'S ACTIVITIES 



INCE the advent of wireless, polar 

 exploration has been profoundly 

 transformed. The radio was first 

 "^ put into service in polar explo- 

 ration, I believe, by Sir Doug- 

 lass Mawson in his Antarctic Expedition of 

 1911-14; but this was before the day of short- 

 wave wireless, and the erection of the high mast 

 and the powerful plant at his base station and a 

 similar one at the halfway station of Macquarie 

 Island was a very arduous operation. Expensive 

 as this undertaking was, and too ineffective in 

 operation when measured by present-day stand- 

 ards, it none the less played a very important part 

 in the scientific work of the expedition and also 

 in keeping up the morale of the men. Before the 



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