Track In Limbo

[Steven Perry 0]

Fun thing happened today. I came online and contactme'd a target about 30mi from the border with the next online ATC sector. Since he had no squawk, I immediately [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igned one anticipating he would call me.

 

However, the traffic called the next sector. That ATC gave him a new squawk code.

 

The pilot squawked the new code, at which point I saw a FDB for half a second, then it reduced to a LDB.

 

The neighboring ATC's client (vERAM) then registered me as the owner of the track. My ATC client (vERAM) registered the neighboring sector as the owner of the track. We both confirmed by using the .OWN command and looking at our scope.

 

Neither of us could re[Mod - Happy Thoughts]ign a new squawk code, drop track, start track, or anything. I ended up solving the issue by logging off, neighboring ATC grabbed the track, and then I logged back on.

 

This shouldn't happen often, but I wonder if there's a tweak in the logic that could be made here. I think what happened is vERAM wanted to pick up a track on the CID as soon as the plane squawked the [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igned code, even if some other controller had re-[Mod - Happy Thoughts]igned the squawk code.

 

EDIT: He was using vERAM, not VRC.

Edited November 19, 2017 by Guest

[Ross Carlson 156]

I think it must have been something else ... vERAM will only try to initiate track if the target squawks a code that you [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igned. So if the other sector [Mod - Happy Thoughts]igned a NEW code, and that new code was the one the pilot squawked, then your vERAM would not try to take track control.

[Steven Perry 0]

I started to edit my first post before I saw Ross's reply... turns out other controller was also in vERAM.

 

Anyway, I'm not sure what happened. I'll leave it up here just in case it happens to anyone else.

[Andrew Morkunas 0]

I was controlling the other sector. As soon as the other controller disconnected the track transferred to me and I was able to manipulate the data tag and flight plan information.