- NAMA Begins Upgrade of Airspace Communications System
The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency says it has concluded arrangements for the deployment of four stand-alone JOTRON high-powered, very high frequency long range communication radios to improve the air traffic system.
According to the agency, each of the radios will be installed in Lagos West and Lagos East as well as Kano West and Kano East area control centres.
The agency said it had conducted a successful inspection and factory acceptance test of the equipment in Norway, in an exercise that included physical inspection of the facilities and their technical specifications vis-à-vis the scope given by the agency.
The team led by NAMA’s Managing Director, Capt. Fola Akinkuotu, according to the agency, also inspected the sensitivity, selectivity, signal to noise ratio, power output as well as range covered by the radios.
Akinkuotu said he was optimistic that the new solution would not only offer options to controllers at any given point in time to discharge their duties efficiently and without hindrance, but would also reduce delays and controller workload.
He added, “When fully deployed, this new back-up communications solution designed by NAMA is aimed at addressing remote controlled air to ground communication challenges in the upper airspace. The four stand-alone radios, by their design, are totally independent and will not interface with any existing communications architecture already in use.
“With a range of over 260 nautical miles each, the radios will have sufficient overlapping of propagated signals to eliminate blind spots.”
