NATCA Bookshelf

Jon Shedden (ZFW) represents the NATCA membership as their Article 114 Representative to the NVS project. His report is below. The NAS Voice System (NVS) schedule has officially slipped. The FAA and Harris continue to work on a new schedule. The detailed schedule is expected around the April timeframe. Mr. Shedden is traveling to the WJHTC March 12-16 to assist with the development of validation test procedures, Feature Description Document (FDD) requirements testing, and evaluation of a prototype NVS keypad. Mr. Shedden will be at the MMAC March 26-30 participating in the scrape and load of their NVS demonstration system. 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. Final Investment Decision will be in February 2019. Key site for NVRP will be Seattle Center in the 2020. 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. The Tone Mitigation National Workgroup met in September 2017 to discuss potential mitigations to the number and severity of tone/noise events across the NAS. This workgroup kicked off largely because of the number of tone/noise events occurring at PCT. One of the outcomes from these meetings was exploring the use of new headset bases, which incorporate an active limiter. The FAA is in currently in the process of procuring these new headset bases. Another outcome was investigation into and possible mitigations for the various causes of tone/noise events. AJW -173 in Oklahoma City continues to work with PCT to identify causes and implement solutions, with the additional goal of providing guidance and best practices nationwide. SURVEILLANCE BROADCAST SERVICES (SBS) OFFICE Eric Labardini (ZHU) is the Article 114 Representative to the SBS Office. Below is the update for SBS. The NATCA Surveillance and Broadcast Services (SBS) team includes: Eric Labardini (ZHU), National SBS Article 114 Rep, Craig Bielek (A90), Dan Hamilton (SFO), National Airport Surface Surveillance Capability (ASSC) Rep, Andrew Stachowiak (I90), Tom

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