We certainly have the Lat & Long rolling ball at our Non-Nats unit (it seems the same set up as
reportyourlevel - Flight Refuelling radar processors). I would have thought most radar units would have this, surely? Definitely very handy when advising D&D of a position.
That said, if you are transponder equipped, we would hopefully be able to identify you very quickly without the need for you to go into the lengthy readout of your lat & long from your GPS unit.
If you are not, then hopefully you would have been speaking to someone and hopefully we should have a general idea of your position at the very least. If you quickly read out the lat & long, then chances are the controller would have been able to jot down the details, always a pen in hand.
However, as to quickly pulling the tapes, it can be done, but not at the touch of a button by the controller - it would involve a request to the Tels guys/girls in the basement who will be able to pull the tapes and replay them, but there would be a few minutes delay (at best) in organising this generally. So yes, it can be done in a hurry, however, generally speaking the tapes would be pulled after a mayday incident as a matter of course as part of the reporting procedure by the controller to the CAA who may or may not request to listen to them, depending on the incident.
Cheers
p.
