A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/624148
years. o Common Terminal Digitizer. (CTD). With 30+ ASR - 8 sites in the NAS that need to be opt imized and modernized to provide input to STARS the Agency has to digitize those si tes as well. The CTD is a replacement for the TDX2000, which was used previously to digitize ASR - 8s. The CTD program has been identified by NATCA as a major risk to the succ essful deployment at the back e nd of the Segment 2 waterfall. A full team, group effort, is working through the process of ensuring that as the ASR8 is modified and upgraded to allow for transition to STARS, that a fully functional and high performing prod uct is delivered to the field. · STARS/TAMR Phase 1 Lead Jimmie White - PHL o Main Display Monitor (MDM) Software. The MDM is the LCD Monitor being deployed to replace the aging Cathode Ray Tube Sony 2Ks currently in use in all legacy STARS fa cilities a nd CARTS facilities. § There are 4 differe nt software versions for MDM3. V2.01 for "flicker." V2.02 for screen shifting, reducing a whole screen shift to one line of pixels, almost indiscernible to controllers. V2.03 debugging software. And V2.04 for data collecting. Currently Seattle is our most troub led site for screen anomalies. V2.04 is input into their system to simply collect data. In truth neither TSLE nor Esterline can determine the cause of the anomalies. V2.04 in theory should put the Esterline en gineers on a path to discovery. TPA is a second site considered for V2.04. § Since MDM3 has remained a hot topic, there is a plan for an MDM test bed. The argument is, is it the monitor, or the operating system, STARS. Since Esterline doesn ' t have access to a STARS system, the plan is to create a string at the tech center and run faulty displays on a STARS system and see if TSLE/Esterline can catch these anomalies in real time. The TSLE lead for MDM and I think this is a bad plan and waste of resources, but this is just in theory for now. Realistically you will need to place a con troller/tech in front of a display, solely to catch MDM anomalies. This is not achievable. I ' ll update as this moves from planning to implementing. Other plans are to have the QRO take part in MDM training to learn about field alignment procedures, so hope fully faulty monitors will be caught before they leave the factory. Possibly send no fault found monitors to a site that typically have no MDM issues (what are the pros and cons?). Lastly, find a better way to track double fault monitors. These monitors sh ould be sent to t est strings and not ops sites. Currently there is no way e nsure this doesn ' t happen. o Phase 1 team. Chris Hilbert (PHL), Jill Carr (TPA), and Teah Lord (F11) will be designated with Jimmie White (PHL) for Phase 1 deployments . Adding these ladies and g entlemen will insure we can make all meetings and important site visits with a NATCA presence. They are already prepared to give ATC training briefings to the sites they will be assigned to.