A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/773352
prioritization where needed. The list was updated with the results of the discussion and will be maintained for use as packaging for future enhancements becomes possible. NAS VOICE SWITCH (NVS) Jon Shedden (ZFW) represents the NATCA membership as their Article 114 Representative to the NVS project. His report is below. NAS Voice System (NVS) Feature Checkout occurred at the Tech Center the week of November 14th. Feature Checkout was performed on NVS Version 12B and was used to determine the completeness of available features, as wel l as their interaction with other features. The Stability demonstration also occurred at the Tech Center, the week of November 28th. The Stability demonstration was run to determine the systems readiness for Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) scheduled to be gin in January. While the system performed well, and there has been significant improvements, it fell short of being able to begin FAT dry runs in January. Harris continues to focus on stability and fixing bugs, and the start of FAT will sh ift a few months to the right. Mr. Shedden and Christopher Lloyd (ZDC) participated in a meeting on 1/4 regardi ng the FAA ' s comments on the 50 percent Supervisors manual. Harris is currently r eviewing FAA comments on the 50 percent Operator manuals. Mr. Shedden was in A tlantic City the week of Nov. 14 for Feature Checkout, and the week of Nov. 28 for the Stability demonstration. Mr. Shedden was also in Seattle for the collection of data to begin development of Operation Test and Evaluation (OT&E) scenarios. Mr. Shedden will begin frequent trave l to Harris HQ in Melbourne, Fla. , to observe progr ess in setup of the FAT system. Next Generation Air - Ground Communication (NEXCOM ) continues deployment of new CM300/350 V2 radios to terminal facilities across the country. Deploy ment is going well. NAS Voice Recorder Program (NVRP) is the replacement for existing NAS voice recorders (DALR, DALR2, DVRS, DVR2). The Program Office presented to the JRC and received approval to proceed to Final Investment Analysis. Key site for NVRP w ill be Seattle Center in the 2018 time frame. Grand Rapids Tower/TRACON (GRR) is reporting multiple issues with their aging voice switch. There ' s one outstanding issue where a RADAR site is causing interference in the t ower c ab. That issue continues to be worked. Waterloo Tower/TRACON (ALO) reported issues with the phone system used operationally in the tower. Both issues have been resolved and we are working to close the CAR. Mr. Shedden is participating in the rewrite of FAA Order 6510.4 (A/G Order). Th e last version was written in 1980. There are both new and existing requirements in the order dictating how Air Traffic must use A/G frequencies. NATCA received a briefing from the Spectrum Office on September 27th. We have requested a SRM panel be convene d to address the safety issues associated with this requirement . AJI is reviewing the request.