Hay POW camp

[maple_leaf_eh]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

Hay N.S.W. was and still is a small town on the edge of the 'outback' . Dry and desolate, the ideal place for a POW camp. But why did the camp have a sophisticated wireless station attached to it ?

https://www.ozatwar.com/sigint/41heavywireless.htm

What a great story! The narratives of the classified sections always have such colourful parallel research tangents.

Why put a strategic communications asset next to a POW camp, in a backroads dusty town? The first thought I had is atmospherics, then I realized hiding in plain sight, and finally shared logistics.

I didn't read what the signallers did for rations, quarters, dental, medical, pay, etc. but if they were off on their own and isolated, someone would be doing all those things continuously and diminishing the section's effectiveness. Having a low-value, rather routine military camp nearby would not have attracted attention by spies. After all, unless an enemy was trying to break out, who would care? And getting them back was something that would be trumpeted as a great security and dominance success.

Radios are as much geographic and general. Someone smarter than me will put a name to it, but radio broadcasts can be aimed just by changing the location of the sending station. Perhaps they wanted their signals to be strong and legible in Japan, and that particular town was as good a place as any.