A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/669670
o TAMR Phase 1 . Legacy STARS facilities and Technical Refresh. 8 of 47 complete including A90 completed on 4/18/2016 o TAMR Phase 3 Segment 1 . ARTS IIIE facilties. Originally t here were 11 there is now ONE. D10, D01, SDF, NCT, SCT, A80, M98, T75, PCT , and C90 have all transitioned to STARS and the only remaining site in Segment 1 is N90 which wil l be completed in May of 20 16. This was a monumental undertaking that many thought was not possible. Because of collaboration and NATCA's total immersion in the program , we are making it happen. 9 of 11 completed. o TAMR Phase 3 Segment 2 . ARTS IIE and IE sites. There were 98 and ther e are now 78. We have an extremely aggressive schedule over the next 2 years and the team has been transitioning these sites with few complications. This is a huge undertaking and the work that is going into it by all aspects of t he Agency is utterly enorm ous. We are up to this challenge. Deployment schedule includes: 3 in 2014, 10 in 2015, 28 in 2016, 32 in 2017 , 15 in 2018, 10 in 2019 = 98 facilities . o 41 ASR - 8 Sites , 23 requiring Common Terminal Digitizer (CTD) . The biggest obstacle to the deployment sche dule above is aging infrastructure of ASR radars (Specifically ASR - 8s) that need to be digitized. This is known as the Common Terminal Digitizer (CTD) program (update on CTD and ASR - 8s is in the Surv eillance section below). • Surveillance Update submitted by Joe Yannone - Region X o Common Terminal Digitizer (CTD) : The CTD is an integral part of the back end of the TAMR Segment 2 waterfall to digitize the remaining ASR - 8 radars, as a STARS system only a ccepts a digital radar feed. CTD First Article shipment to WJ HTC was completed on February 19. This system will be used f or onsite DTE and OTE testing. DTE is currently s cheduled to commence April 19. The two keysites for the CTD are Rockford (RFD) and Roanoke (ROA). As the first keysite, RFD will also be utilized f or additional "delta OTE" testing and AT User Evaluations , including side - by - side comparison of the analog ASR - 8 feeding the ARTS2e with the CTD - digitized ASR - 8 feeding the TAMR system . T his is currently targeted for October of this year. Ongoing recent pr ogrammatic activities include setting up CTD/ERAM testing, setting up the new systems, installing sf , optimizing the system using True North alignment versus Magnetic North, reviewing contractor proposal for ensuring the data paths to STARS are fully redun dant and identical, and getting the radar feeds to the new system at the Tech Center fully prepared. o Radar Performance Issues: Elmira, NY (ELM) - A tower raise is a necessity at this facility. Tree growth has been an ongoing issue at the radar site where c overage has suffered due to the foliage blocking radar line of sight. There have been several engineering studies that address the requirement for a tower raise. The issue, as it has been for years now, is the funding for such and the previous lack of prio rit ization of an ELM tower raise. Setting aside the entire safety aspect of these existing coverage problems due to the tree growth, another impac t would be to TAMR deployment. The ELM radar