A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/1033775
continues to correct grounding issues to resolve this problem. GRR is also expecting to receive a replacement voice switch, the Interim Voice Switch Replacement (IVSR), in 2019. The Tone Mitigation National Workgroup met in September 2017 to discuss potential mitigations to the number and severity of tone/noise events across the NAS. This workgroup kicked off largely because of the number of tone/noise events occurring at PCT. One of the outcomes from these meetings was exploring the use of new headset bases which incorporate an active limiter. PCT has completed their evaluation of the active limiting headset bases. Testing will now continue to several more facilities. D10/DFW successfully accepted their new IVSR on July 20th. The FAA will be conducting Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) to Internet Protocol (IP) conversion in the Bangor, Maine area in the coming months. This technology will assist the FAA as local telephone company providers move away from legacy TDM services to IP services. WAKE TURBULENCE John Murdock (PHL) is the Article 114 Representative to the Wake Turbulence Office. His report is below: During August, we conducted two initial briefings for CWT at Las Vegas and Seattle. Also, during the month of August and first half of September, workforce training was conducted and completed in the PCT region. PCT region went IOC on Sept. 11, with no major issues reported or noted. The PCT region included 20 satellite towers, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Contract, and NASA facilities that all implement RECAT. It was the largest implementation of RECAT ever. During the remainder of September, we will conduct an initial meeting at the Honolulu Control Facility (HCF) for the facilities of Hawaii and begin workforce training in the Seattle area. HCF has a unique set up between the terminal and enroute environments. We will take a close look at that set up to determine how CWT will integrate into the facility. There have been no reported wake events associated with CWT since mid-July when the first facility went IOC. During the remainder of 2018 HCF, SEA, and LAS areas will all implement CWT. CWT training is significantly easier and accepted by the workforce. RECAT 2 negatives were so significant in some cases, RECAT 2.0 had to be sold to the workforce as a good product. CWT does not have these issues and facilities are looking forward to implementing it. Current non- CWT facilities are reaching out and requesting to be upgraded to CWT. We hope to start planning if and how we can upgrade all current RECAT facilities in 2019.

