Southwest Pilot Rant Locks Out Frequency

[AD-15]

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo....main/5179444/

http://www.click2houston.com/video/28313494/index.html

http://www.dallasvoice.com/listen-so...e-1080799.html

Aircraft radio setups use a PTT (Push To Talk) switch to enable voice transmission. Although it happens very rarely, sometimes the PTT can get stuck, and after the pilot has finished his intended message on the radio his speech will continue to be transmitted. With most cases, you'll probably get a little amusing cockpit chatter before the PTT switch un-sticks itself. However, in this case, you can see the consequences were very serious as the switch remains activated for a few minutes, preventing anyone else (the controller or any of the other flights) from speaking (only one transmission at a time can be made on a specific frequency).

[Kata]

I always check that my radio is not stuck on Tx if I don't hear anything on frequency for a while, just in case This illustrates why - although my rants are only ever about santa

[santa claus]

although my rants are only ever about santa

....and no-one takes a blind bit of notice, not even santa

[Kata]

One day, one day!

[TheAnimus]

Used the C word before now.

Some guy was near a non towered field not making any announcements of his moves, fair enough, I announced my downwind, he decides he wants to cross mid field, no announcements

Unicom chipped in that they thought it was a little bit silly.

[aidanjt]

They should really bring flight radio into the 21st century. :\

[TheAnimus]

yeh n have it stop working until you power cycle it three times each trip!

[aidanjt]

V.s. the very real problem of it stops working for everyone every time someone's transmit button gets jammed.

[Kata]

So how do you fix that, aidan? And also upgrade several hundreds of thousands of aircraft and ground stations worldwide at the same time?

[TheAnimus]

So we should be using mil grade hopping stuff that can work through jammers?

Its not as if this is often a problem compared to the busy frequencies been un able to get permission to do anything because there are so many people all talking to the tower.

An example is EGLD, I've sat there for a couple of minutes before now just waiting for the lady to have a moment to get back to me, as the circuit was quite full.

[TeePee]

On that subject.

[aidanjt]

So how do you fix that, aidan? And also upgrade several hundreds of thousands of aircraft and ground stations worldwide at the same time?

Curiously enough, Britain managed to switch from analogue terrestrial TV to digital terrestrial TV with little fanfair. Just install dual analogue/digital equipment at ground-stations and set a date for the analogue switchoff after 5-10 years or whatever, and by that time, most equipment will either have failed or be upgraded to the new standard equipment.

It's not that hard.

[TheAnimus]

Hmm huggy fealie forum rules, yes,.....

There is an apparent lack of incite and understanding of the technicalities and subject matters been discussed, not to mention an in correct weighting of the cost of these things.

Projecting such a strong opinion on something which you are demonstratively lacking in domain specific understanding serves as a lasting discredit.

As there are a few technology geeks with varying amounts of pilot experience all thinking it would be hard to change away, I would highly recommend researching the subject matter, asking pilots and ATC about comm failures, whilst taking in recent changes (such as the replacement of mode C transponders) as useful data.

[aidanjt]

Modern physics and engineering can cram far more digital audio channels into the same bands, and be properly secured, and make them fully duplexed, and bounce around any part of the spectrum uninterrupted.

And the 'polite' version of 'lolzustoopid' is still obnoxious.

[TeePee]

A typical comm radio costs $3000. How much would a digital one cost?

[aidanjt]

I don't see any reason why it should cost much more than a basic cell phone to make. So it would depend on how scrupulous the manufacturers are.