Narrative:

I was attempting to couple the two stars positions at prc air traffic control tower together; specifically position 3Q into 3P. I somehow accidentally coupled all of P50 TRACON positions into 3P and was immediately caught by surprise as numerous aircraft began to appear in the flight plan list. I did not know how this had happened and was frantically attempting to resolve the situation. I entered the command to drop all flights in the list so that the prc position; 3P no longer was incorrectly displayed for these flights. I received a call from the jerome sector overlying prc airport at P50 on the shout line. They had asked calmly if prc was having stars issues and I responded that I had somehow inadvertently made a mistake. I explained the command I was trying to enter and the command that had actually occurred and asked the radar controller if they knew how to un-do the mistake I had made and they did not know; they gave me a direct line to the P50 supervisor. I hung up the shout line and called their supervisor on the dial line at the etvs position. I explained to the P50 supervisor the mistake I had made and the accident that resulted of which he was already aware of. I asked if there was anything I could do on my end to resolve the situation. He said no; luckily they were not busy at the time and that they were able to fix it on their end by just reacquiring each track/flight individually at the affected sectors. I apologized again to their supervisor for the error.the function I was attempting to accomplish is not currently a normal operating procedure at prc. The function of coupling the two tower stars positions together at prc is one of the many proposed changes to our standard operating procedures to ease the workload of the overlying approach control sector; jerome of p50. There is an increasing amount of stars and radar functions that are either currently or are proposed to take effect; that are required of the prc tower controllers. Prc tower is a VFR tower with radar. We cannot use our radar for separation it is simply a tool we use to aid in determining aircraft position. Most of the time; it is completely useless due to target saturation when we are busy. Many prc tower controllers have not received proper training or simulation on stars and there is a safety issue in requiring that our controllers begin using these functions without knowing exactly what the keyboard functions do. The prevention of re-occurrence for this event is simple; and black and white. Our controllers myself included cannot enter a keyboard command into stars again without knowing without a doubt what the function will do. This includes functions that are currently expected of us by the overlying approach control. Until proper training and simulation can be provided any and all coupling commands or configuration settings in stars that approach control requests of prc air traffic control tower should be done by either a supervisor at P50 or a supervisor at prc; of which we currently have none; or by a qualified and trained employee.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Controller makes incorrect keyboard entry to combine positions in Tower Cab and combines all sectors of overlying TRACON into the Tower Cab.

Narrative: I was attempting to couple the two STARs positions at PRC Air Traffic Control Tower together; specifically position 3Q into 3P. I somehow accidentally coupled all of P50 TRACON positions into 3P and was immediately caught by surprise as numerous aircraft began to appear in the flight plan list. I did not know how this had happened and was frantically attempting to resolve the situation. I entered the command to drop all flights in the list so that the PRC position; 3P no longer was incorrectly displayed for these flights. I received a call from the Jerome Sector overlying PRC airport at P50 on the shout line. They had asked calmly if PRC was having stars issues and I responded that I had somehow inadvertently made a mistake. I explained the command I was trying to enter and the command that had actually occurred and asked the Radar Controller if they knew how to un-do the mistake I had made and they did not know; they gave me a direct line to the P50 Supervisor. I hung up the shout line and called their supervisor on the dial line at the ETVS position. I explained to the P50 Supervisor the mistake I had made and the accident that resulted of which he was already aware of. I asked if there was anything I could do on my end to resolve the situation. He said no; luckily they were not busy at the time and that they were able to fix it on their end by just reacquiring each track/flight individually at the affected sectors. I apologized again to their Supervisor for the error.The function I was attempting to accomplish is not currently a normal operating procedure at PRC. The function of coupling the two Tower STARs positions together at PRC is one of the many proposed changes to our standard operating procedures to ease the workload of the overlying Approach Control sector; Jerome of p50. There is an increasing amount of STARs and radar functions that are either currently or are proposed to take effect; that are required of the PRC Tower controllers. PRC Tower is a VFR Tower with radar. We cannot use our radar for separation it is simply a tool we use to aid in determining aircraft position. Most of the time; it is completely useless due to target saturation when we are busy. Many PRC Tower controllers have not received proper training or simulation on stars and there is a safety issue in requiring that our controllers begin using these functions without knowing exactly what the keyboard functions do. The prevention of re-occurrence for this event is simple; and black and white. Our controllers myself included cannot enter a keyboard command into stars again without knowing without a doubt what the function will do. This includes functions that are currently expected of us by the overlying Approach Control. Until proper training and simulation can be provided any and all coupling commands or configuration settings in stars that Approach Control requests of PRC Air Traffic Control Tower should be done by either a Supervisor at P50 or a Supervisor at PRC; of which we currently have none; or by a qualified and trained employee.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.