A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/669670
evident in the amount of restoration efforts expended following lighting strikes. Finally, improper or aging HVAC (heating, venti lation, and air conditioning) at many operational facilities has caused overheating at many radar sites which is yet another problem which exhaust resources (both material and manpower). • TAMR Phase 1 Update submitted by Jimmie White - PHL o OT&E and CHI Tests R27 Regressi on test 4/4 - 4/8 was successful. This was a very important build to move the key site effort at I90 forward and open the door for R4 (merge) to be deployed in May. MIA and Eglin AFB have been running on R27 for two months without incident. R27 d rop 10 reported suitable for national deployment on 4/14. o S6R4 (merge) Regression Testing set to begin 4/25 - 4/29. o TSAS CHI demo at Raytheon Marlborough 4/11 - 4/15. Th in specs 1,2,3, were completed. Completed meaning the stakeholders agreed on the wording as of now, but changes may be added later. Due to limited resources, Raytheon was not able to do a f ull demo of TSAS functionality. Some aspects of the CHI were power point driven to have conversation. Very early on, the right track ball button was asked (fo r testing only) if it could be used as a highlighter (toggle on, toggle off) of key TSAS data block elements that we didn ' t necessarily want to see in a primary data block. The question still remains if this button can be used for this function? If not, is there any other function for this b utton that is being considered? Are there any alternatives to do the highlight by other means ( unused keyboard buttons etc.)? With these thin specs being agreed to, contract action can now take place. Software from L ockh eed is expected early 2017. This will then be turned over to Raytheon to have it STARS ready hopefully by summer of 2017. TSLE will then have to do risk mitigation s before they can do an OT&E. It was originally thought to be key sited in 2018, but due othe r risk factors, it ' s now looking li ke 2019 for a release/key site. There are talks to request/provide a TBFM lab at the WJHTC for testing, to avoid other programs. This past week, PTR/STRs were ranked to start the TSAS ball rolling. The TBFM group was made aware these items will likely rank low for PTRs that have bee n in the works for a few years. This is not a concern of the TBFM/Program office group, only that it is ranked. Again, this allows the TSAS thin specs to gain contract action. The TSAS stakehold ers were also made aware of the concern TSAS may pose on TAMR. There are many STRs/PTRs in the works to keep pending I.O.C. sites on STARS and resources need to be carefully thought out to NOT impact thes e sites. The program office believes there will be n o impact to TAMR, because it will have it s own funding and Build. So, to them, there is no financi al or bandwidth impact to TAMR. This is not necessarily true. Time and personnel diverted to TSAS will impact TAMR in the foreseeable future, as lab space and staffing become an issue. o Operational A90 declares I.O.C. at 1:20 am 4/17 to be the latest legacy STARS site to upgrade from G1 to G4. • TAMR Phase 3 Segment 1 Update submitted by Doug Peterson - D10 o Potomac TRACON (PCT) completed their STARS transition on th eir fourth test event and declared continuous operations on March 22. They struggled with sub - standard performance from the flight strip printing