A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/565556
· Mr. Shedden observed the SRM panel at PCT on 8/26 and 8/27 regarding the decommissioning of their General Dynamics Emergency Communications System. This was a continuation of the panel from last week's panel on 8/17. · Meetings this wee k: o NVS Leads meeting (program update) o NVS Human Factors Working Group (HFWG) · Other issues worked: o Discussions with the Program Office and NATCA National regarding possible changes to headset availability o Coordination with LAX and Communication Engineering regarding their ongoing radio issues o Confirmation and coordination with FAA LR on the upcoming air traffic Early User Involvement Event (EUIE) on October 26th o NVS schedule update review o TX capable frequencies/unmonitor ed frequencies on NVS o Access Control List (ACL) functionality in NVS o Restricted Dialing Sequences on NVS INTEGRATED DISPLAY SYSTEM REPLACEMENT (IDS - R): Richie Smith (N90) represents NATCA as the Article 48 Repre sentative to the IDS - R program. Mr . Smith's report for this week is below. · The results of ER2 testing at PHL were positive and the plan to move forward with ER4 keysite testing this week will continue. o Unfortunately for PIT they have been dropped from the keysite testing l ist pending a proven fix to the ACE - IDS interface issue. o This is unfortunate news for our brother Rich Fuga. Mr. Fuga was the original Article 48 representative for the IDS - R program and has spent countless hours working on the project and sharing hi s work with other facilities. Mr. Fuga will be retired by the time you read this update and he will not be able to throw the switch to turn NIDS on at PIT. o Many thanks go out to Rich for all of his hard work and dedication. · Now on to the " bad" news. Last week's update contained the news of a proposed 54% budget cut to the IDS - R program in FY16. o With a loss of over half of the budget we don't need to address FY17 yet. Mr. Smith will be attending meetings at FAA headquarters this week to discuss every facility involved in the NIDS program and their future. · To further complicate the ER4 installation issues the program office has acknowledged the fact that facilities utilizing the older version of the NIDS Operating System are faci ng system outages during their upgrade. o NATCA is not pleased with this procedure and alternative methods must be explored as to not impact our workforce. DATACOMM: Chad Geyer (ZLA) represents NATCA's bargaining units on the DataComm project. Mr. Geyer forwarded the information below for this update. · This week representatives from SAN, CVG and JFK are in Oklahoma City to