A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/977826
NAS VOICE SWITCH (NVS) Jon Shedden (ZFW) represent s the NATCA membership as their Article 114 Repr esentative 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 time frame. Mr. Shedden w as at the Tech Center April 16 - 20 and April 23 - 27 for NVS Validation testing. 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 rega rded 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 voi ce 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 NVR P will be Seattle Center in the 2020. A Safety Risk Management Panel is schedule for April 12 . 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 outs tanding 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 acr oss 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 the 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 solution s, with the additional goal of providing guidance and best practices nationwide. PCT is tentatively scheduled to begin the evaluation of these new headsets in June.