CTLR RPTS THAT THE AURAL WARNINGS ASSOCIATED WITH THE MEARTS RADAR EQUIP WHICH PROVIDES CONFLICT ALERTS AND MSAW ALARMS FAILED. THE CTLR WORK STATION WAS RESTARTED WHICH RESTORED THE SYS.

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THIS IS A FOLLOW-ON TO A RPT MAILED LAST WK. THE DAY AFTER THE INCIDENT MENTIONED IN THE PREVIOUS RPT; I SAT DOWN AT SECTOR 4 AGAIN. THE SYS STATUS BOX ON THE MEARTS WORK STATION WAS MINIMIZED AND GRAY; INDICATING NO ALARM STATUS. PARTLY ON IMPULSE AND PARTLY DUE TO THE PRECEDING DAY'S EVENT; I OPENED THE SYS STATUS BOX; AND WAS VERY SURPRISED TO SEE THE AUDIO FUNCTIONS INDICATING 'DOWN;' IN BRIGHT RED LETTERS. I CLOSED THE SYS STATUS BOX; AND THE MINIMIZED BOX REMAINED GRAY. I NOTIFIED THE MEARTS TECHNICIAN; WHO WAS ON THE FLOOR ANYWAY DOING HIS EVENING CHKS (WHICH WOULD HAVE CAUGHT THIS SITUATION IF I HADN'T) AND THE WORKSTATION WAS RESTARTED; RESTORING THE CONFLICT ALERT AND MSAW AUDIBLE WARNINGS. I AM VERY CONCERNED THAT SOME SORT OF RANDOM FAILURE OCCURS WHICH CUTS OFF THE AUDIBLE ALERTS FOR CONFLICT ALERT AND MSAW; AND THAT THIS FAILURE; WHILE DETECTED BY THE SYS; IS APPARENTLY NOT ALWAYS PRESENTED TO THE CTLR VIA A VISIBLE ALERT. I RECOMMEND THAT ALL CTLRS USING MEARTS WORK STATIONS ROUTINELY CHK THE SYS STATUS BOX BY ACTUALLY OPENING IT AND OBSERVING THERE ARE NO RED ITEMS; NOT RELYING ON THE MINIMIZED BOX CHANGING COLORS TO ALERT THEM TO A PROB.