Notice to Intent to Sole Source to YSI, Inc. (Formerly Sontek)

The US Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Eastern Region Acquisition Division intends to negotiate on a sole source basis with YSI Incorporated, 1700 Brannum Ln #1725, Yellow Springs, OH 45387-1106, using the procedures in FAR Part 13, and in reference to 41.U.S.C. 253(c)(1), to purchase twenty (20) MD-600: MD 1.5 MHZ System, 600M Sontek Point Source Current Meters in support of the Office of Observations (OBS) National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) of the National Weather Service (NWS). The Government has a requirement for YSI Incorporated's Sontek Point Source Current Meters supports the deployment and maintenance of buoys in meeting the National Weather Service's mission to protect life and property by providing essential environmental observations used by the NWS warning systems, environmental models, short term forecasts, climate record, and feed several NWS products. In addition, NDBC systems are intrinsic to the NWS' Weather-Ready Nation initiative by providing public and private sector users with real time observations needed to make fast and smart decisions needed to save lives and enhance commerce. During the NDBC engineering development of the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean Array (TAO) technology refresh the Sontek Argonaut-MD was selected as the point source current meter for the TAO program after a competitive bidding process in early 2006. Major deciding factors included its high accuracy (+/-1% of measured value) and resolution (0.1 cm/s), high sensitivity for low-scatter environments, no directional bias on current measurements, flexible sampling strategies to reduce power consumption, and the ability to store over 95,000 samples internally in case of a loss of the inductive modem. The Sontek Argonaut MD-600 point source current meter has proprietary firmware including polling commands and data return formats. Sontek Argonaut-MD has been interfaced (via hardware and software) to the TAO refresh payload and the TAO IT data interface and database. YSI, Inc. does not have any authorized resellers with the ability to distribute the required products to the NDBC in Mississippi. There are no other distributors or manufacturers that are capable of producing the Sontek Argonaut MD-600 Point Source Current Meters. The statutory authority for other than full and open competition is FAR 13.106-1(b) (1) (i), Only one Responsible Source. The North American Industry Classification Code (NAICS) for this requirement is 334519 titled, Other Measuring and Controlling Device Manufacturing, with a size standard of 500 employees. This is not a solicitation for competitive quotes. However, if any other interested party believes that it can meet the requirements, it may submit a statement of capabilities, which if timely received, will be considered by NOAA. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed requirement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement in the future. Evidence must be provided of ability to provide the required services. The capability statement and any other information furnished must be in writing and must contain material in sufficient detail to allow NOAA to determine if the party can meet all of the requirements. Capability statements and related materials must be e-mailed to contact@example.gov by 1:00 PM EST, March 8, 2018.