Between 1938 and 1942 an Admiralty Direction Finding Station operated from an area roughly 300m north of Cooling Radio Station.

The station consisted of a small wooden hut, four poles and underground power and telephone cables. By 1942 it was deemed no longer needed and correspondence from January 1943 records plans for recovering the equipment. When in use it would have recorded direction finding data on enemy broadcasts, typically to aid in the locating on submarines. (1-2)

The former location of a Second World War Admiralty Direction Finding (D/F) Station is visible as an X-shaped vegetation mark on aerial photographs at TQ 7727 7706, 300m to the north of Cooling Radio Station (2). The D/F station was part of the Y Station network which located the position of radio transmitters by plotting the bearing of the signals picked up by the different stations in the network. The D/F station consisted of a small wooden hut and four masts. By the end of 1942 the station was no longer needed and the hut was removed in 1943. (1-3)

<1> English Heritage, 2010, Cooling Radio Station, Hoo Peninsula, Kent: An archaeological investigation of a short-wave receiving station (Monograph). SKE25193.

<2> English Heritage, 2010, Cooling Radio Station, Hoo Peninsula, Kent: An Introduction (Unpublished document). SKE16235.

<3> RAF, 1951, NMR RAF 540/496 4191 12-MAY-1951 (Photograph). SKE58372.