Right, back to the Alternative Reality that is ATC. Whilst
Danny42C is burbling at his chalkboard, or wondering what this model airfield is all about, other ATC warriors in the mid-60s are trying to master the MPN11/CPN4 at the GCA school at Sleap.
Now this photo has just been posted to the ATC Old and Bold library ... OMG, what the Hell was all that? I lived and worked there? And actually knew some of what it was all about? This is apparently Bay 15 ... but Bay 9 and Bay 12 were identical. They were the controller bays, the other bays were tech stuff. Or something. Nice to have a name for your workplace - "I'm in Bay 12 today, whooppee."
There are the 2 PPI's of course. The top one is Search/Director, the lower one is Talkdown. If you look carefully, on the lower display [to the right] you can see the joystick that servoed the Precision beam left/right/up/down. But WTF are all those other panels? In a GCA truck one lived in a world of odd panels, some of which one does not touch [in case WW3 breaks out with the Techies]. Others were essential to the day-to-day operation of this bit of kit.
And most of the buttons/switches were painted with luminous paint, so every control position had a UV lamps that would be waved around to illuminate things you might needs to see in the dark ... and it was DARK in there. So, to save us from glowing in the Mess, we also had to wear dosimeters, the badge of a real controller, which every now an again went to SMC to determine whether we would ever breed again.
There were also things that did something, and other things that did something else. Some were radar, some were comms, some probably turned on the kettle in the Tech truck. How on earth did a plt off know how to work in that shambles?
Not seeing it here, but there is also a 12-line comms panel, to the right of the controller. It's in a cut-out on the desk, so to operate the switches you need to turn your hand upside down. And there is a faint glow-worm of a lamp, so if you wear your watch on your right wrist, you can also see the time. I have worn my watch on the right since 1966, although not inverted these days
As Captain Scott said in his Diary, "My God, this is an awful place."
