A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/785247
FIDI Update I was told the program has b een addressing various actions related to the Tech Refresh portion of FIDI over the last few months. The FIDI program met with the Capital Investment Team (CIT) in December 2016 to discuss the state of the FIDI program. No decision was reached on the overa ll plan for t he FIDI program at the meeting. The next steps were for the program to be notified on any decisions and next steps, via either a follow up meeting or in writing. FIDO Update A sample of the new FDIO printer has been sent to the tech center an d is currently being tested. I have not had a chance to make the trip to the tech center to get hands on yet but as soon as I do I will send out an update. Currently the FDIO team is finalizing all the contracts for cables and other parts associated with t he install of the new p rinters. NAS VOICE SWITCH (NVS) Jon Shedden (ZFW) represents the NATCA membership as their Article 114 Representative to the NV S project. His report is below: NAS Voice System (NVS) Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) Dry Run is now s cheduled to begin the second week in April. FAT is now scheduled to begin the week of July 18th. Harris continues to assemble the 255 position ATC Voice Node (AVN) for FAT. They also continue development of the formal test procedures, which will be run on the FAT system. Mr. Shedden and Christopher Lloyd (ZDC) received informal delivery of the 90% complete operator and supervisor manuals. Formal delivery will occur just prior to the beginning of FAT Dry Runs. Mr. Shedden was at the Harris test facility in Melbourne, F la., the weeks of January 9th and 23rd. Mr. Shedden was also in D.C. on February 1st for the quarterly Program Management Review. Next Generation Air - Ground Communication (NEXCOM) continues deployment of new CM300/350 V2 radios to terminal fa cilities across the country. Deployment 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 Inves tment Analysis, leading up to the Final Investment Decision. Key site for NVRP will 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. Potomac TRACON (PCT) is reporting a large number of tone events. The FAA sent a team of engineers from the MMAC to their facility to try to determine the cause, and an y possible resolutions. This has also caused NATCA and the FAA to take a closer look at the headsets to determine if they provide adequate p rotection against these events. Mr. Shedden is participating in the rewrite of FAA Order 6510.4 (A/G Order). The la st version was written in 1980. There are both new and existing requirements in the order