Are you able to say precisely where that delay came from ?
No. Could be one or all or your bullet points.
Is it correct that "in the old days", they would have called Air support directly from the Traffic car,
They could have called us direct, but more than likely we would have picked it up from listening to various channels.
but no longer have the ability do so ?
Not allowed.
We can self deploy, without clearing it with NPAS Control, if we hear something on the radio but as we have 4 radios and about 30 talk groups in our area, it's just a matter of chance if we hear anything.