At ScACC we cannot ident on departure.
We do not have AUTO DM at all, and airborne times are manually input, to start NAS processing and tracking.
Aircraft show on our system as soon as they are visible to the radar, whether DM'd or not, but we are still required to ident them to validate the Code-Callsign pairing and to verify the Mode C irrespective of whether they have been worked by the departure radar controller.
We are endeavouring to remove this requirement for aircraft that have had their SSR code validated and verified by a "capable" unit, and as I previously mentioned, that only applies at present to LACC/MACC who use the same code-callsign database as us.
To those "down sarf", we do not have background tracks, we can filter manually by height and also by code (rarely used) so if the aircraft is coming our way we always see it.
The main problem is with direct routes, NAS does not always produce a time update, and the aircraft can get transferred before the flight details are sent by OLDI, apologies to Amsterdam and Maastricht (LOL) as this is where it normally happens.
So, referring to the first post of this thread, expect ScACC to ASK for an IDENT on departure, and kindly do not offer one on first contact.
Thank you one and all, I think we have done this to death now !