Different ATC sound quality

EHITCH

EHITCH

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
May 2, 2005
Messages
237
Location
Chicago
Display Name
Display name:
Elizabeth
This past weekend I flew right seat in 2 different planes into and out of 2 different airports (Piper at KPWK and Skyhawk at KUGN). Listening to the controllers at Palwaukee I have a hard time understanding what they are saying, and I always thought it was my hearing, or maybe my cheap headset. Happened again on Saturday, ATC seemed to have some kind of a buzz or vibration or overtone or something, same as I remembered from several months before.
What made we wonder, though, and provoked this post, is that on Sunday, ATC at Waukegan was crystal clear and I understood every word. The planes are about the same vintage and my headset had not magically changed overnight, it's just that having the chance to compare both levels of sound quality only one day apart made me wonder: has anyone else experienced this kind of quality difference? Isn't there some minimum level of audio quality or clean signal or something that the FAA requires (dumb question, I know, but I still have faith)? Have other pilots in the Chicago area experienced this, and if not, next time you're up in the northern area give a listen, I'd like to know if you run into the same thing.
Thanks, Hitch
 
I hear sound quality differences all the time up here in the boston area switching from one approach controller to the next. I figure mic techique, RF interference and old mics on the controllers end are the problems.
 
I was in PIA one night when the clearance/ground controller was sounding terrible; I asked him if anyone else had complained of low sound quality and then another pilot chimed in and said that the controller was hard to hear. Apparently he switched headsets and it got a bit better, at least then you could understand what he was saying. I flew into UGN last fall and I didn't have any problems. Random question: do controllers have their own headsets or do they all share some?
 
If the controller has noise cancelling microphone, like WE do, they have to keep the mic close to thier lips, as in a finger width. They probably forget.

I have one at work that can go from booming to "Mike! Are you there? Can't hear you!" in about half an inch. My heard of hearing Mom said I was loud on it.

I wonder if controllers are trained on technique and given a chance to hear what they sound like.
 
It could also be something in one of the planes -- bad radio, audio panel problem, antenna problem, wiring problem (particularly if it's an old plane -- wiring can cause intermittent problems and noise).
 
mikea said:
If the controller has noise cancelling microphone, like WE do, they have to keep the mic close to thier lips, as in a finger width. They probably forget.
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They don't have noice cancelling headsets. ...or at least the majority doesn't.

mikea said:
I wonder if controllers are trained on technique and given a chance to hear what they sound like.
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It depends on the facility, but most allow pulling of the tapes to see what you sound like. Some listen to themselves on LiveATC.net as well. ....but like most of the controllers, they could care less. :p
 
Random question: do controllers have their own headsets or do they all share some?
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We are issued headsets. Up until a few years ago, we all had the same style/model headsets. We now have a choice of several different models. If they go bad, we trade them in for another of the same model. I would imagine that these headsets perform differently. For example, some have the microphone at the mouth end of a boom, and some have the microphone in the part that hangs on the ear, and the sound conveyed via an air tube.

It isn't the controllers that don't care. Although to be sure there are some, like in any endeavor, that don't care, we mostly don't know. If pilots don't tell us we have a problem, we don't know. I once asked if we could have a reciever mounted out on the field so we could monitor exactly what our transmissions sounded like. It never happened.

I wonder if controllers are trained on technique and given a chance to hear what they sound like.
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Well voice technique is one of the things that are evalusted during training, but none of us, that I know of, has been professionally evaluated by someone qualified/certified/licensed/whatever in radio technique. I don't even know there is such a certification. We are supposed to have tape talks every so often where one of our recorded sessions is put on a playback machine and we sit with our supervisor and get critiqued.

Some facilities/controllers don't even use headsets. We do have handsets available for use if we prefer.
 
jesse said:
He said noise canceling microphone.
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Yes, he did. NCMs are passive, the noise cancelling comes from their design.

Noise in the cockpit comes pretty much from all directions. A mike designed to accept sound from one direction hears it all. However, if you design the mike to accept sound from two directions, and then place the mike close to the lips, the ambient noise comes in from both sides of the mike and cancels itself out, more or less, while the sound from your lips comes in primarily from one side only and gets through.

I've never heard the stats: how many db's a NCM can attenuate. I'm sure it isn't much but every little bit helps.

-Skip
 
mdreger said:
snip
Some facilities/controllers don't even use headsets. We do have handsets available for use if we prefer.
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Cool post! I've used the handsets (telephone style) to listen in when I've been in ATC facilities. Those things get pretty uncomfortable after a while. I notice that at my local tower the Tower Frequency is on loudspeaker, and the controllers hold the handset up to communicate with the pilots.

I didn't realize that there were different styles of headset. I guess I never noticed.
 
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