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Vincent Earl

Page history last edited by Ian Gillis 3 years, 2 months ago Saved with comment

 

 

My memories of my time working at Marconi are sporadic and disjointed but all are happy.

 

I joined from school with A levels in December 1977 and was immediately sentenced to the bowels of E Block at Writtle Road. It was a revelation that such technologically advanced systems could be built in such conditions. I nearly lost the job on day two after I was asked to update a secret document and put the removed pages in the normal rubbish bin. Well, no one had told me about secure document disposal, but I did learn a lesson that day and my boss was very understanding.

 

I started in the Project Library with Shirley Harden but, after training in programming, was moved to a Programming Team on the Swedish TOR-H project (DBU260). My Team Leader was Richard Wilsher. My first CORAL-66 program for his team was a cyclic buffer-handling routine, which compiled on its first attempt. Sadly this level of success was not always evident in my subsequent career but it was a great start.

My abiding memory of TOR-H was the ‘infinite number of monkeys’ test. One of the final tasks before deployment was to check that we couldn’t break the console software. As the engineers and programmers all knew how to operate the console, we needed people that didn’t, so that they would stress the software with incorrect inputs. I recall the afternoon in the Pre-Commissioning Test Area (PCTA) when everyone that could be spared, was asked to go there and just hit keys for a few hours. This included admin people as well as any other itinerant person that happened to be walking past the PCTA at the time. The console keyboards and tote screen were all in Swedish so most users had no clue what they were asking the system to do. It was great fun and the software survived with very few observations.

I still have a project tie with an owl emblem somewhere. The owl was adopted as the TOR project emblem after some artwork provided by Svenska Radio (See The Owl Story in Fur Hat & Tor by John Pearce). 

 

SDC Test Area, RAF Bentley Priory, c.1999

SDC Test Area, RAF Bentley Priory, c.1999

 

My next project was IUKADGE, which I joined in 1984. I was assigned to the Position Definition Language team which defined the key sequences allowed for each, different, operator role. I was also part of a 4-man team sent to the Hughes Aircraft facility at Fullerton, California in January 1985, to assist with the integration of the Hughes Data Handling System (DHS) and the Marconi console. The console was known as the Display & Voice Communications Subsystem (DVCS) and was based on the Marconi Locus-16. It was a tough job but someone had to do it. I met some great Hughes Aircraft people on that trip and they hosted us really well (Lou Proudfoot, Vikki Edwards-Peto and Ron Gullage to mention a few). Fullerton was not far from Los Angeles and visits to Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Universal Studios and other places of interest were on offer. Thanks for a great time everyone.

 

After IUKADGE, I spent some time on the KAWAL project for Malaysia and re-trained in the ADA programming language. I worked on the Executive Operations cabin software, as well as the simulator. This was all based at Writtle Road.

 

A return to IUKADGE was required in 1991 after the system was live with the RAF. As the threat had changed since the system was first specified, a team of engineers from each of the 3 contractors (Marconi, Plessey and Hughes Aircraft) were required to be on site at RAF Bentley Priory, the Standby Air Defence Operations Centre (SADOC) for the system. The team also included members of the RAF and the whole team was hosted at the System Development Centre.

 

We even had our own heraldic crest assigned by the RAF.

 

This integrated team were there to maintain and improve the features of the IUKADGE system to meet the new demands of the Fighter Control branch. Our task was to develop new functionality and test it, prior to live deployment to the fighter control bunkers round the UK and on the Faroe Islands. A new software update was required every 6-9 months to include specific changes agreed with the RAF. To test each new release we isolated the RAF Buchan and RAF Boulmer bunkers from the live system and sent the controllers to RAF Neatishead for the weekend. We then loaded the new software at Boulmer and spent the weekend testing, while the UK Air Defence Region was policed by RAF Neatishead. We used Buchan to generate the plot load we needed and used Boulmer as the main testing station. In order to create the required track loads and input volumes, the RAF provided off-duty personnel at Boulmer to act as controllers. It was amusing to watch non-commissioned airmen and women acting as Intercept Controllers, Weapons Allocators or Fighter Marshalls during these tests, as normally these roles are for trained officers only. The testers were all provided with scripts of key sequences to follow, so it wasn’t a free for all. At the end of the weekend we collected our results, reloaded the current software and allowed Buchan and Boulmer bunkers back into the live system, so that the real controllers could resume work on the Monday morning. Once the test results were all approved back at Bentley Priory, the new software roll-out was performed.

There was one delivery that was in jeopardy of being missed due to a problem where the new Range & Bearing function sometimes crashed the console. I was pleased to be able to find the fault after much searching and the delivery was completed as planned, but only just. I was given a special award by Chris Devine for finding that particular fault and saving the delivery.

The Bentley Priory assignment lasted from late 1991 to early 2000, so I never made it to Eastwood House. By that time I could see that the contract was winding down and our home base had changed from Chelmsford to Frimley Park, under Alenia-Marconi. None of the Chelmsford team had ever worked at Frimley and Frimley seemed to have no idea what we did or what we could do in the future. I left in early 2000, before most of the remaining ex-Chelmsford employees went into discussions with Frimley about redundancy.

 

I had a great time at Marconi, it was the best job I never knew that I wanted.

 

 

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