A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/876590
NAS VOICE SWITCH (NVS) Jon Shedden ( ZFW) represents the NATCA membership as their Article 114 Repr esentative 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 conti nue 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 schedule because of this delay. Mr. Shedden has been working with AJV - 7, as well as the UAS NATCA representatives Steve Weidner and Jeff Richards, to define new require for ground - to - ground communications between controllers and UAS PIC s. We are currently in the review process for those requirements. Next Generation Air - Ground Communication (NEXCOM) continues deployment of new CM300/350 V2 radios to terminal facilities across the country. Some terminal facilities in the NAS using very old radios hear a pop back or " squelch tail " when they release their tran smitters. The new radios being deployed under NEXCOM Segment 2 do not have this " feature " as the squelch tail is generally regarded as undesirable in radio communications. This issue has cropped up twice now during deployment and the program office should brief future affected 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 Investme nt Analysis, leading up to the Final Investment Decision. Key site for NVRP will be Seattle Center in the 2018 timeframe. Mr. Shedden was in Washington, D.C. Sept. 13 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 is causing interference in the t ower c ab. 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. National selected the following members to represent NATCA on the workgroup: Brandon Miller Don Smith CJ Jacques Jon Shedden The first meeting is schedu led for Sept. 19 - 20 in Washington, D.C. Plantronics, the provider of our headsets, was debarred due to " adequate evidence of conduct indicating a lack of business honesty or integrity." However, after appeal the GSA has removed the proposed debarment, so the FAA may continue to do business with them.