TheOddOne.. One or two ATCOs at Heathrow had the extraordinary ability to do GMC without writing anything down (making life hell for those taken over from them!). They would watch the ticker-tape and remember stand numbers, Leslie Welch-style. The lesser mortals would write the stand numbers on a sheet as they appeared on the tape, marking it with a pen as it clicked past so we knew where we'd reached. Sometimes a heavyhanded "tick" would break the tape, resulting in extreme panic as attempts were made to repair it!! Deft staff members would quickly stab a finger on the rapidly disappearing end of tape and it would then be re-connected using a piece of thin adhesive tape. If the end was lost, the whole thing had to be re-threaded. If only pilots knew........
The people in Telemove were Communications Officers - great people. And do you remember the original Telemove keyboard, before "PC-type" keyboards were introduced? The old Exchange-telegraph system employed a clockwork tape printer which had to be wound up. This drove the printing wheel and in Heathrow Tower the tape then ran along a metal runner about 10 ft long across the GMC desk with a motorised "puller" at the far end. When a transmission was started the tape started to move one space at a time and the tape would continue moving even if no letter was sent. The Telemove keyboards resembled pianos and when a key was pressed to send a character the tape would stop whilst the little wheel with the typefaces on typed the letter on the tape. To prevent the tape charging off the "piano key" had to be held down until the next letter key was presssed, then the tape would advance one space and the next character printed. It was: Press key and hold down, press next key and hold down, then release first key.. It was quite a technique to get right and it was fun going into Telemove and seeing a room full of Reginald Dixons!!!