Hannam who was associated with the prominent patriot George Augustine Taylor and had himself been involved with the establishment of the Wireless Institute of Australia. A series of tragedies and mishaps had led to the Cape Denison shore base on Antarctica being kept open for a second winter, March–December 1913. But there had been some tension between Mawson and Hannam and in January 1913, Hannam elected to return home after his year at Macquarie Island and Cape Denison. The intermediate station that he set up at Wireless Hill on Macquarie Island was fully functional and providing sterling service exchanging messages with the Hobart coastal station VIH. But there had been ongoing issues with both transmission and reception at Cape Denison, and only occasional messages were got out. This failure prevented the expedition fulfilling the terms of its contract with Australian and London Press in providing timely updates on the activities and status of the expedition. The replacement wireless officer would bring with him improved wireless telegraphy receivers (sensitivity of the crucial detectors was taking great strides at the time) which it was expected would make the Cape Denison station fully effective. An appeal was made for a wireless operator to serve during the second winter of the AAE, and now Jeffryes was given the appointment. In Antarctica Jeffryes arrived at the Cape Denison shore base in February 1913 as the base was enduring a near-nightmare situation. The expedition's leader and commander, Douglas Mawson, stumbled into the base, the sole survivor of a sled dog probe eastward along the previously unknown interior coastline of the Australian Antarctic Territory. As the new wireless operator, Jeffryes was able to start the relay of communications that would inform Australia of the expedition leader's survival. However, within days of Mawson's arrival, the Antarctic winter began. Mawson's expedition hut was located close to what was then the location of the South Magnetic Pole, and continued radio interference and static associated with polar conditions threatened the base's minimal ability to contact Macquarie Island. The expedition leader at first admired Jeffryes's assiduity with earphones and Morse-code key, but grew increasingly guarded in his praise. In Mawson's words, Jeffryes "applied himself to work with enthusiasm and perhaps an over-conscientious spirit." Climate conditions outside the hut made winter outdoor exercise impossible, leading to cabin fever. All the expeditioners would have been familiar with tales of Antarctic winter madness and particularly