View Full Version : How long is the ATC tape loop?
jet_fumes_junkie
13th Dec 2003, 12:58
30 min like FDR or more? How about radar data? And how are those stored, solid-state?
SM4 Pirate
13th Dec 2003, 13:37
Depends on ATS company ops; in Australia they are kept for 30days... Everything is kept... only after 30 days are the tapes re-used; but with digital technology everything can be burnt on CDROM or similar...
Accident/incident investigations are kept forever... Unless they need the tape... But the CDROM issue is an issue...
Gone are the 'safe periods' one suspects...
Bottle of Rum
HEATHROW DIRECTOR
13th Dec 2003, 17:08
I believe they were still using huge tapes at West Drayton when I retired a year ago, although it must surely be something more modern by now? Certainly, for investigative purposes it was possible to play back the radar recording immediately on a PC-type programme but R/T tapes had to be "ordered"... and on several occasions I've undergone the ordeal of waiting for the tape reel to finish before it could be played back!!
10 DME ARC
13th Dec 2003, 23:39
We record telephones and frequencies digitally to memory and to DVD, the DVD’s are changed every day. :)
Scott Voigt
14th Dec 2003, 00:30
In the US we keep tapes for 15 days but this is going to be going to 45 days as per a request from the NTSB...
regards
Scott
Whipping Boy's SATCO
14th Dec 2003, 00:40
Uk Mil "tapes" are changed every 24 hrs and then retained for a minimum of 30 days (obviously longer if impounded). Quite a fancy bit of software monitors all the freqs etc and you playback using a system similar to Windows Media player.
Latest Precision Approach Radar is also recorded; same rules apply.
Dan Dare
15th Dec 2003, 16:42
One unit I worked at kept DAT tapes of RTF and phones for 6 months! Great if you needed to record important personal calls...
More usually its STILL very precious analogue recorings on 70s recorders which fill a room and are so fragile that you need to sign in blood if you want to listen. If memory serves the radar recordings are kept for 7(ish) days and talk kept for a month. Obviously not in the realms of CVR loop tape, more like a librabry.
NERC Dweller
17th Dec 2003, 06:18
At Swanwick, voice is recorded in 2 separate places.
The legal requirement is meet by a standard voice recorder (ICR something or other)
However the recording that is used the most is that kept on the record and replay system and is played back via the workstations in the replay room along with the display replay. This is also a tape based system, the tapes look like overgrown video cassettes
I understand that the tapes are kept for 30 days and then re-used. If a tape needs to be impounded then a copy is made of the relevant section for replay and the master kept somewhere safe.
aluminium persuader
17th Dec 2003, 06:33
err... 23' 7 3/8". Measured it once on a slow night.
Sorry, did you want it in metres?
;)
av8boy
18th Dec 2003, 01:01
In the US voice tapes are retained for 15 days except in the case of accident, incident, or hijack, in which case they're held longer.
In all of the facilities I've worked in, adhering to this has been something of a religion.
Dave
Edited to say, "Sorry Scott. Didn't see your post." :O