Originally Posted by
BackPacker
"Southend Approach, G-ABCD request Basic Service" (*)
(*) The latter case would only be applicable if Southend Approach is able to provide a LARS (ATSOCAS) service outside their TMA, and if that's the service you wish to obtain. But if you intend to fly into the Southend TMA (or whatever they're managing), your initial call would be about that.
Has this changed? In the past, any old Thomas, Richard and Harold could offer you a basic service, with or without LARS, but has it changed in that offering a basic service relies on the controller having a Radar feed available?
The way I understood it is that, in the past, a basic service could be offered by all and sundry because they weren't expected to offer you traffic information apart from generalities such 'two in the circuit', 'one on long final' or similar, etc.