PHL CTLR DESCRIBED EVENT WHEN ADJACENT ARTCC HOST COMPUTERS WERE ASSIGNING SAME CODE RESULTING IN FALSE TARGET INFO ON PHL DISPLAY.

Narrative

WORKING VERY BUSY DEP/OVERFLT SECTOR. ACFT X APPEARS ON MY SCOPE NW OF PHL DSNDING OUT OF 11000 FT ON MY TAG. THIS WAS THE CALL SIGN OF A DEP OFF OF ONE OF MY SATELLITE ARPTS. I HAD NOT RELEASED THIS ACFT FOR DEP AND THE ACFT WAS NOT ON MY FREQ. IT TOOK ME A MIN TO FIGURE OUT THE PROB; DISTRACTING ME FROM MY ACTUAL TFC. WE HAVE BEEN HAVING AN ONGOING PROB WITH TFC FROM ZDC WHICH ARE OVER-FLYING OUR AIRSPACE BEING ON THE SAME BEACON CODE AS TFC IN THE ZNY COMPUTER (USUALLY EITHER A PHL ARR; NOT YET TAGGED ON OUR SCOPE; OR A DEP NOT YET TAGGED; AS IN THIS CASE). WE ENDED UP WITH 'FALSE' TAGS MOVING THROUGH OUR AIRSPACE SOMETIMES CAUSING CONFUSION. WE THEN HAVE TO SUSPEND THESE TAGS; OR OUR OWN ACFT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO TAG ON THESE ALREADY 'USED' BEACON CODES. THIS IS A REAL DISTR TO THE OP; ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU ARE BUSY. I'M NOT A COMPUTER GUY BUT THERE HAS TO BE A WAY FOR THE ZNY AND ZDC COMPUTERS TO TALK TO EACH OTHER AND ENSURE THAT THEY ARE NOT TRYING TO USE THE SAME BEACON CODES IN THE SAME AREA AT THE SAME TIME.