A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/698751
NAS VOICE SWITCH (NVS): Jon Shedden (ZFW) represents the NATCA membership as their Article 48 Representative to the NVS pr oject. His report for this week is below: NAS Voice Systems (NVS) demo labs are currently running on Build 11. Build 12 is still in development (these are beta builds), but should be deployed soon. Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) was scheduled to begin in November 2016, but it has been delayed until February of 2017. The contractor is working on defect resolution and stability improvements. Chris Lloyd, NVS Training Lead, is currently participating in Task And Skills Analysis (TASA) for the controller, supervisor, and configu ratio n specialist user roles on NVS. NVS and ERAM began working together to ensure installation compatibility in the DSR console. NVS and ERAM met in Atlantic City to discuss the new display sizes for both NVS and ERAM. At this time it appears there will n ot be issues with either deployment. Next Generation Air - Ground Communication (NEXCOM) continues deployment of new CM300/350 V2 radios to terminal facilities across the country. Deployment is going well. 12 new radios are in work or are going operational i n June/July at various sites across the NAS. Due to configuration issues, the testing of a new RCAG at Houston Center (ZHU) was delayed. This RCAG will replace the ARINCs VHF Extended Range Network (VERN) in Cancun. The FAA successfully replaced the Key We st VERN last summer. These RCAG/VERN radios provide long - range directional radio coverage in the Gulf of Mexico. NAS Voice Recorder Program (NVRP) is the replacement for existing NAS voice recorders (DALR, DALR2, DVRS, DVR2). The NVRP Integrated Requiremen ts Team met on March 24th to begin validating and shaping the requirements for the initial Program Requirements (iPR) document. Key site for NVRP will be Seattle Center in the 2018 time frame. The Headset contract (Plantronics) expires this month. Plantroni cs was awarded the contract so most everything will remain the same. There will be a few headset models that will no longer be available under the new contract due to obsolescence. Mr. Shedden is working with the program office and LR to dev elop a briefing on the changes. The Headset Splitter final design has been completed. The splitter , which is designed to allow three or four headsets to be connected to existing voice switches , should be produced and deployed later this year. Air Traffic Services is curr ently looking at the quantity necessary to address the ATSAP CAR. A SRM Panel is tentatively scheduled for the week of July 18th. Grand Rapids Tower/TRACON (GRR) is reporting multiple issues with their aging voice switch. The Voice Switching Team in Oklaho ma City (AJW - 173) is working closely with GRR to resolve their issues. There ' s also a radio coverage/spectrum issue being worked, as well as an issue with Tech Ops staffing and training. The controllers have presented a list of issues to Tech Ops and AJW - 1 73. They are meetin g soon to address these issues. Waterloo Tower/TRACON (ALO) is reporting issues with the phone system used operationally in the tower. One of the issues has been resolved (inaudible phone) while the second one remains in work. SURVEILLA NCE BROADCAST SERVICES (SBS) OFFICE : Eric Labardini (ZHU) is the Article 48 Representative to the SBS Office. Below is the update for SBS.