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537 Signals Unit. On probation.

After the weekend I went on watch for the first time. The radar site, or tech site, as we called it, was in a classic large hollow in the countryside about three miles from the domestic site. It was ideally suited to get optimum performance from the Type 15 metric radar. To get there we, that is the entire watch, at 07.30 climbed on board two trucks for the drive to the tech site, so as to take over from the night watch at 08.00.
In addition to the Type 15 radar there were two Type 14 radars, one upper and one lower looking, and three Type 13 height finders. All were chassis mounted and capable of being packed up and moved within hours. Power was provided by mobile generating sets and there were two vehicle-mounted control cabins with two control positions in each. The Controllers' rest room was also vehicle-mounted. Maintenance was done in mobile workshops. The Chief Controller, plotting table, and edge-lit vertical plotting screen, other display boards, and plotters' and tellers' positions were all housed in a Leyland 'Hippo' vehicle.1 When I arrived the only permanent feature on the site, other than the perimeter fence and vehicle hardstandings, was a toilet block.
Although I was not to be fully involved with watch-keeping until I became an experienced and fully qualified Fighter Controller nearly six months later, it is worthwhile at this stage to explain the watch-keeping system.
The watch-keepers were divided into two Flights, A and B. Technical staff operated a similar, but separate, watch-keeping regime. The tech site operated 24 hours a day throughout all days of the year.
Meal times in the Messes were extended to accommodate the requirements of the watch-keepers.
Whilst the changeover times may not be precise, the A and B Flight watches operated in the manner shown in the panel on the next page, each alternating with the other, and always with a ten minute hand-over overlap to enable aircraft under the control of the outgoing watch to be handed over to a controller on the next watch for the completion of the sortie.
The C & R watchkeepers, because their duties involved overnight watches, followed their routines for one week only at a time. Personnel did night watches at intervals of three to five weeks apart, depending on manning levels, leave, and other exigencies.
The A and B Flight Duty Watch Officers, depending on which part of the fortnightly cycle their watch fell, would, for example, do evening watch on a Monday, have 24 hours off watch, then go on night watch at midnight Tuesday, rest during Tuesday daytime, then go on evening watch, followed by 24 hours off, and so on. This, as time would tell, turned out to be a very physically and mentally wearing routine.
Half an hour was allowed for journey times. This meant that, in effect, the time away from the domestic site was a full hour longer than the actual time spent on watch.
Time off was not free time in which we could do as we liked. It was during this that we performed our sometimes onerous and time-consuming extraneous duties, but more of those later.
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1 This was an articulated lorry with a trailer having sides which folded out to triple its width and thus form an almost square floor area.
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