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Hot Topic (More than 20 Replies) Where & When (Read 17,305 times)
Gordon Carle
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Where & When
14.01.2012 at 16:51:33
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I'd appreciate it if anyone knows where and when the photo was taken
Cheers
Gordon
  

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Ian Fish
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Re: Where & When
Reply #1 - 14.01.2012 at 17:53:24
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Don't know but I did notice with interest that the chap on the left still has the four hands that you needed to control on SLEWC.
  
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Gordon Carle
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Re: Where & When
Reply #2 - 14.01.2012 at 18:00:12
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Looking at hair & collar - maybe a chapess!
  
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Ian Fish
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Re: Where & When
Reply #3 - 14.01.2012 at 18:01:43
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Gordon,

You are right - must be losing my touch!

Ian
  
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Richard Jenner
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Re: Where & When
Reply #4 - 14.01.2012 at 18:14:12
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Hi Gordon,

A very early version of ICCS - just a few 'eddies' mounted above the consoles. There are some brackets in front of some of the consoles - probably for filming - so my guess is Ash some point during the early days of system development. The light brackets are typical R3 as opposed to the test floor at the ADC West Drayton. The chapess - with the essential 4 hands - could possibly be Nick Loveday?

Richard
  
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Gordon Carle
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Re: Where & When
Reply #5 - 14.01.2012 at 19:05:59
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Thanks - never saw Ash or most of the modern equuipment in real life
Cheers
  
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Richard Jenner
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Re: Where & When
Reply #6 - 15.01.2012 at 08:44:01
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Not so modern now! To get an impression of today's hardware, visit PC World next time you are in Aberdeen.

Richard
  
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Gordon Carle
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Re: Where & When
Reply #7 - 15.01.2012 at 10:59:31
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Doubt if I's understand much ! Stlll my old overlays are in need of replacement & maybe they have an updated chinagraph section
Gordon
  
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Nick Loveday
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Re: Where & When
Reply #8 - 17.01.2012 at 08:10:18
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Not me your Honour!  Never was good enough to make SAC!
  
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Richard Jenner
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Re: Where & When
Reply #9 - 17.01.2012 at 11:10:40
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Sorry Nick - another mis-id.

Looks like an 'upper ops' room to me.

Richard
  
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John Booth
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Re: Where & When
Reply #10 - 18.04.2012 at 21:57:22
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Believe the brackets above the consoles were installed after a spate of console failures and the resultant noxious gases caused a number of individuals to get medical treatment!  They housed gas 'sniffers'!
I reckon it is an upper ops too which rules out Neatishead as that had a walkway down the left hand side.

The red display at the front was installed to show 'urgent' information and only really used during exercises. Can't remember Boulmer having one installed and never saw Ash so my guess is Buchan as not all of the consoles there had Eddies installed. The red display, sniffers and uniform makes me think late 90s?

Re the latest equipment, I'm working on the interim replacement and all will be pleased to know it'll be more PCWorld Wink
  
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Richard Jenner
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Re: Where & When
Reply #11 - 19.04.2012 at 07:25:34
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John Booth wrote on 18.04.2012 at 21:57:22:
Believe the brackets above the consoles were installed after a spate of console failures and the resultant noxious gases caused a number of individuals to get medical treatment!  They housed gas 'sniffers'!
I reckon it is an upper ops too which rules out Neatishead as that had a walkway down the left hand side.

The red display at the front was installed to show 'urgent' information and only really used during exercises. Can't remember Boulmer having one installed and never saw Ash so my guess is Buchan as not all of the consoles there had Eddies installed. The red display, sniffers and uniform makes me think late 90s?

Re the latest equipment, I'm working on the interim replacement and all will be pleased to know it'll be more PCWorld Wink


If it is Buchan it's before the unit went operational - circa 93. I say that because Buchan had a lot more Eddies in upper ops and I never saw any 'sniffers' in my time there (93 - 98). Also, Buchan ended-up with a unique key board hard ware (around 96) - there was a shortage of spares for the original keyboards so Buchan was totally re-equipped with
'flush' keyboards so that the removed keyboards could be used as spares for Neatishead & Boulmer. This picture shows the original keyboards and 'feels' like early ICCS to me.

Richard
  
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John Booth
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Re: Where & When
Reply #12 - 19.04.2012 at 08:29:34
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Hadn't spotted the keyboards! Always wondered why BU was different, everyday is a learning day!

Did Ash have the red scrolling electronic display fitted?
  
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Phelpsy
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Re: Where & When
Reply #13 - 02.05.2012 at 11:22:30
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JB don't give away any secrets of any Future UCCS developments.  Looking at that equipment now makes me wonder how I ever qualified as an 'IC'

Awaiting incoming..

Phelpsy
  
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Jan Cobb
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Re: Where & When
Reply #14 - 02.05.2012 at 11:28:20
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Phelpsy wrote on 02.05.2012 at 11:22:30:
Looking at that equipment now makes me wonder how I ever qualified as an 'IC'

...and I thought the equipment at West Drayton was bad enough in 76! If I had had to learn on the kit in the photo above, I NEVER would have qualified as an IC (and some, of course, wonder how I ever did!!)
  
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Mike Clarke
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Re: Where & When
Reply #15 - 02.05.2012 at 21:08:42
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John Booth wrote on 19.04.2012 at 08:29:34:
Did Ash have the red scrolling electronic display fitted? 


Not when I went through there in '92!

Mike

  
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Richard Jenner
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Re: Where & When
Reply #16 - 04.05.2012 at 09:48:04
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Jan Cobb wrote on 02.05.2012 at 11:28:20:
Phelpsy wrote on 02.05.2012 at 11:22:30:
Looking at that equipment now makes me wonder how I ever qualified as an 'IC'

...and I thought the equipment at West Drayton was bad enough in 76! If I had had to learn on the kit in the photo above, I NEVER would have qualified as an IC (and some, of course, wonder how I ever did!!)


ICCS was an example of an early keyboard driven system - ie where the main interface was a qwerty keyboard and roller ball rather than hard wired buttons or some bespoke keyboard. The 3 displays allowed you to have your own 'totes' left & right of the main 'god's eye' display. The display was in colour too and nice and big.

All this should have made it much easier for the computer generation used to PCs (or even MACs Jan). However,.....all of us using PCs (etc) know that the ease of the interface depends largely on the menu system and in this regard, parts of ICCs were a bit baffling and not intuitive. EDDIEs (a 4th windows driven display) were added to some consoles (no longer universal therefore) to aid date extraction.

The system did improve with software upgrades and was certainly both advanced and powerful in its heyday.

Student controllers did not start out on ICCS and were introduced to controlling on the school's own simulation system which was much simplified.

Personally, the most complex consoles I had to deal with were Growth to Full NADGE - GFN - with around 160 hard wired buttons plus a 5 digit number enter device which meant that you had to memorise loads of codes to be able to do anything. Having seen the E3 consoles though I suspect these are worse!

Richard
  
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Jan Cobb
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Re: Where & When
Reply #17 - 04.05.2012 at 10:12:40
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Richard Jenner wrote on 04.05.2012 at 09:48:04:
All this should have made it much easier for the computer generation used to PCs (or even MACs Jan).

Nice one, Richard!!

I was at Saxa Vord in 1979, in the 'new' R101 ops room, when we received a visit from the group investigating what would be required in the system database that would be made available on those 2 text-driven displays. We (Dick Waters and I) talked at length about the problems involved in all the information having to be displayed on a single screen, when we had been used to several totes that everyone in an ops room could refer to, irrespective of the task s/he was carrying out or where s/he was located. Even in that new SV ops room, we had a multi-part tote that had unfortunately been etched (I mean!! ETCHED!!!) with the map and significant detail of our area, removing all possibility of future amendments without expensive intervention (a bit like the work needed to carry out changes on the first EDDIEs!!).

I am sure that Helen will agree with me that the new information system available to CAB advisers is far, far more comprehensive than the old paper-based information system that was in existence when I joined the CAB service in 1999, but not being able to have several information system folders open on an adviser's desk at one time is limiting ... as it was with the IUKADGE when first introduced (and I was the NatRep at Buchan's first Taceval post-introduction of IUKADGE!!). It didn't help that the text-based displays did not at first automatically update if the origin of the displayed data changed, leaving a controller with a false sense of security!

Ultimately, a computer display will NEVER take the place of the tote and it was always my opinion that an electronic representation of the global ops room tote was required; it's just a shame that it's only recent technology that has been able to provide the display resolution that would have given us what we really wanted .... then!!

BTW, Richard, a Mac is just a computer ... in exactly the same way as a Bentley Coupé is just a car!!! Smiley
  
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John Booth
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Re: Where & When
Reply #18 - 05.05.2012 at 13:41:34
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Having used or viewed a number of Allied systems over the years I remain a firm believer that as a combined system both UCCS and even ICCS are/were the best in the world. Sure other systems have capabilities in certain areas where our systems maybe don't but we shouldn't (I don't think we do btw!) underestimate what we have!

And Phelpsy, thought it was Son of UCCS not Future UCCS?

Oh and I think you'll find you are by no means the only one wondering how you ever qualified Wink
  
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John Booth
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Re: Where & When
Reply #19 - 05.05.2012 at 13:49:12
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Mike Clarke wrote on 02.05.2012 at 21:08:42:
John Booth wrote on 19.04.2012 at 08:29:34:
Did Ash have the red scrolling electronic display fitted? 


Not when I went through there in '92!

Mike


So then, no red display probably rules out Ash.
Keyboard layout rules out Buchan
Lack of walkway on the far side rules out Neatishead

So that leaves Boulmer, although around 94/95 there wasn't a red display I think I do remember boltholing from Buchan 97/98 to Boulmer when there was one (John Fearon was the det cdr, we upset all the SFC staff by parking in their spaces, drank the bar dry on the first night and went to some lockup for a fantastic brewery tour)

Back to topic Boulmer sometime between 95 and 97...
  
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Richard Jenner
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Re: Where & When
Reply #20 - 06.05.2012 at 18:31:17
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The keyboard layout doesn't necessarily rule out Buchan as the change to the flush keyboard wasn't until around 1995/96.

Richard
  
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Phelpsy
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Re: Where & When
Reply #21 - 07.06.2012 at 16:45:37
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Boothy,

Harsh banter from someone who isn't MC qualified. I found the E-3 system quite easy to use once you got the hang of it, a bit like LINUX.

It definately is Future UCCS Wink

Phelpsy
  
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