A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/865677
Because the IDSR/NIDS waterfall has officially ended, with all networks declaring ORD, the program office is staring to downsize its personnel. This should have no impact in the support department but the impact is yet to be seen. If anyone has an issue or question please contact NATCA Article 114 R ep Richie Smith at idsr@natca.net . NAS VOICE SWITCH (NVS) Jon Shedden (ZFW) represents the NATCA membership as their Artic le 114 Representative to the NVS project. His report is below. NAS Voice System (NVS) Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) Dry Run ended June 23rd. The system still has stability problems so Harris will continue working on defect resolution prior to starting formal FAT. Formal FAT was scheduled to start July 18th, but has been officially delayed. The FAA is working with Harris to address the impacts to the s chedule because of this delay. The key site survey for Seattle Tower (SEA) occurred the week of August 9th and 10th. The site survey goes over all their position hardware as well as the layout and functions on the position maps. Mr. Shedden was in Anchorage the week of July 24th for a meeting with Alaska flight service personnel to finalize their NVS requi rements. Harris Human Factors personnel were in attendance to get a better idea of their needs. Final requ irements will be reviewed soon. Mr. Shedden will be in Washington , D.C. on August 30th for the NVS Enterprise Management System (EMS) Technical Inter change Meeting (TIM). At the TI M , we will discuss use cases of the Enterprise system. Chris Lloyd (ZDC) will also be in attendance. Next Generation Air - Ground Communication (NEXCOM) continues deployment of new CM300/350 V2 radios to terminal facilities a cross the country. Some terminal facilities in the NAS using very old radios hear a pop back or " squelch tail " when they release their transmitters. The new radios being deployed under NEXCOM Segment 2 do not have this " feature " as the squelch tail is gene rally regarded as undesirable in radio communications. This issue has cropped up twice now during deployment and the program office should brief future affecte d facilities prior to install. 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, leading up to the Final Investment Decision. Key site for NVRP will be Seattle Center in th e 2018 timefra me. Mr. Shedden will be in Washington, D.C. September 13th for the NVRP Source E valuation Team kickoff meeting. Grand Rapids Tower/TRACON (GRR) is reporting multiple issues with their aging voice switch. There ' s one outstanding issue where a RADAR site i s causing interference in the Tower Cab. That issue continues to be worked. A Tone Mitigation National Workgroup has been formed. This was a result of a large number of tone incidences being reported at Potomac TRACON (PCT), as well as other places. Natio nal selected the following members to represent NATCA on the workgroup: