Jack Heaton, wireless operator

A first-person memoir follows a wireless operator’s learning curve and varied assignments, describing technical training, shipboard installations and inventive grounding methods for wooden hulls, and an experiment in using radio to aid seal hunting. The narrative moves through commercial and government positions, collaboration with established wireless companies, and service aboard warships, submarine chasers, and field artillery units in wartime. Alongside practical explanations of transmitters, receivers, and aerials, episodic accounts of Arctic and tropical voyages, shipboard life, improvisation under difficult conditions, and the challenges of wartime communications are presented.