Narrative:

I was working navajo with low volume; so biltmore manually handed this off to me. Biltmore was training and was extremely busy. This is an accident waiting to happen; maybe not with this aircraft but someone will 'whack' two some day while spending too much time trying to solve this problem. The problem occurs when an aircraft departs prc-T. This aircraft worked by ZAB. I believe this stars 'data tag' may go into prc-T's coast list. Then ZAB tries to hand this aircraft off to us and is unable; thus creating a manual hand off to biltmore. In this situation biltomore accepted the 'manual' hand off from ZAB. As I said; biltmore was extremely busy and training. Biltmore then created a 'data tag' with one too many characters in it. They did this because they could not start the correct 'data tag' on this aircraft. Using the bogus tag; biltmore handed the aircraft off to me on navajo. Now I had to coordinate this inbound with santan and flash it to ffz-T. I tried in vain to get the right 'data tag' started. I was doing multifunction modify ok space; etc; etc. Nothing would work. I spent way to much time on this. Fortunately I had no other traffic. If I did; I could not afford to do what I did. Others tried without any success. At one point I had this AC 11 switch beacon codes; and then he indicated he was an air carrier. I dropped that tag. Then I got a correct 'looking' tag for the aircraft; however it was a center tag. Again; I could not get it to one of my tags so I could use it. This has been an ongoing problem since we moved into this building in january 2007! This needs to be fixed before someone gets killed.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: P50 Controller described ongoing confused identification events involving PRC departing traffic; reporter claiming workarounds are required to permit automation tracking/identification.

Narrative: I was working Navajo with low volume; so Biltmore manually handed this off to me. Biltmore was training and was extremely busy. This is an accident waiting to happen; maybe not with this aircraft but someone will 'whack' two some day while spending too much time trying to solve this problem. The problem occurs when an aircraft departs PRC-T. This aircraft worked by ZAB. I believe this STARS 'data tag' may go into PRC-T's coast list. Then ZAB tries to hand this aircraft off to us and is unable; thus creating a manual hand off to Biltmore. In this situation Biltomore accepted the 'manual' hand off from ZAB. As I said; Biltmore was extremely busy and training. Biltmore then created a 'data tag' with one too many characters in it. They did this because they could not start the correct 'data tag' on this aircraft. Using the bogus tag; Biltmore handed the aircraft off to me on Navajo. Now I had to coordinate this inbound with Santan and flash it to FFZ-T. I tried in vain to get the right 'data tag' started. I was doing Multifunction Modify OK space; etc; etc. Nothing would work. I spent way to much time on this. Fortunately I had no other traffic. If I did; I could not afford to do what I did. Others tried without any success. At one point I had this AC 11 switch beacon codes; and then he indicated he was an air carrier. I dropped that tag. Then I got a correct 'looking' tag for the aircraft; however it was a center tag. Again; I could not get it to one of my tags so I could use it. This has been an ongoing problem since we moved into this building in January 2007! This needs to be fixed before someone gets killed.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.