NATCA Bookshelf

INTEGRATED DISPLAY SYSTEM REPLACEMENT (IDS-R) Richie Smith (N90) leads NATCA's efforts on the IDS-R project as the Article 114 Representative. Below is Mr. Smith's report. The IDSR program office has not met since the middle of December due to the holiday season. At this point the new software build is still on track for a spring delivery date for testing. The new operating system remains a technical problem. To this point in time no one has figured out a way to upgrade the OS without taking the system off line for an unknown length of time. The impact on a small network (such as CID or even PHL) might be contained to a few hours to overnight outage but someplace like I90 or SCT would takes days using the present procedure. This was an oversight during the system design process and options are to be debated (as a priority) during the beginning of 2018. The OS upgrades not only contain performance fixes or improvements but also more importantly from the FAA's point of view the upgrades will contain needed security updates. 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) Factory Acceptance Testing (FAT) Dry Run ended June 23, 2017. 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 18, 2017, but has been officially delayed. We will meet in Washington, D.C. next week to discuss the schedule with Harris in detail. Mr. Shedden will be in Melbourne, Fla., participating in Release 1.1 Stability Assessment Testing (RSAT) Jan. 29 – Feb. 2. 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 transmitters. 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 Investment Analysis, leading up to the Final Investment Decision. Key site for NVRP will be Seattle Center in the 2018 timeframe. NVRP is currently in the source evaluation phase. 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 tower cab. That issue continues to be worked.

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