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MEM Tower received the EFSTS Keypad Replacement on June 11-15, 2018. MEM Tower will be the last facility to install the new EFSTS Keypad Replacement. FIDI There is nothing to update at this time. 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. Earlier in June, NIDS software build V3.6.4 again failed preliminary testing at the Technical Center in Atlantic City. The bulk of the failure has been traced to incorrectly configured modems at the site. It appears that the FTI routers were reset to various settings without coordination with the tech center personnel. The next attempt of V3.6.4 testing is proposed for the week of September 17. On the surface this is a strange move considering that the contract with the current vendor expires at the end of June. As of this writing, June 22, no announcement has been made about any of the options for the future – an extension with the current vendor for the build, a time-based extension, or a new contract, effective July 1, with either the current or a new vendor. Last year the contract was awarded at the eleventh hour and some time of confusion followed. Hopefully this year will be different. Along a more productive line of information, the database team is in the process of updating facility pages to accommodate SWS and updating/upgrading network pages to make more streamlined databases. The available technology has changed and older databases need to be brought up to speed and ready for future upgrades. NAS VOICE SWITCH (NVS) 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 working on NVS requirements review. Mr. Shedden is at the Tech Center in Atlantic City the week of June 25th. 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.

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