Hi/Low Sector Controller

[RyanB]

Yesterday evening I flew up toward Nashville and after being handed off to Memphis Center I noticed the controller on frequency was the same guy for both the Hi and Low Sectors. Typically on my previous flights it has been one controller for the Low and a separate controller for the High. This made it difficult to get a word in edgewise for us guys down low. I inadvertently stepped on a few guys on the High sector frequency due to the fact that I couldn’t hear them, only the responses from the controller. It seemed a bit chaotic for this reason. Is this the norm? I don’t recall encountering this in the past. Was it just a slow sector? For those that routinely fly with Center, have you encountered this?

 

[Velocity173]

Well, just like local being combined with ground during light traffic, they combine high & low at centers as well. Even if facility is split, there are plenty of freqs that are assigned to that low or high sector. Also UHF for military. Even aircraft on your freq, that are outside your range but inside ATC's you won't hear.

So basically, you're gonna talk over other pilots. Really no way around it.

 

[RyanB]

Well, just like local being combined with ground during light traffic, they combine high & low at centers as well. Even if facility is split, there are plenty of freqs that are assigned to that low or high sector. Also UHF for military. These freqs aren't going to be heard by all pilots.

So basically, you're gonna talk over other pilots. Really no way around it.

I figured it was something along those lines. I didn’t know if it was just a slow sector down low so they fuse the two like 125.1/119.2. It just seemed like unusually high volume on the high frequency to have the same controller operate both. Lots of jumbled transmissions. I don’t fly with Center too often so I was just curious.

 

[Velocity173]

I figured it was something along those lines. I didn’t know if it was just a slow sector down low so they fuse the two like 125.1/119.2. It just seemed like unusually high volume on the high frequency to have the same controller operate both. Lots of jumbled transmissions. I don’t fly with Center too often so I was just curious.

Sounds like they probably should have split if the traffic load was that high.

We even had an internal split at my old facility with approach and arrival when traffic increased. Occasionally approach would take it upon themselves to stay combined during heavy traffic. Usually ended up with aircraft talking over one another. Only time I went "down the tubes" was when I stayed combined with a student when I should've split. Amazing I didn't get an operational error (OE) out of it.

 

[RyanB]

Sounds like they probably should have split if the traffic load was that high.

We even had an internal split at my old facility with approach and arrival when traffic increased. Occasionally approach would take it upon themselves to stay combined during heavy traffic. Usually ended up with aircraft talking over one another. Only time I went "down the tubes" was when I stayed combined with a student when I should've split. Amazing I didn't get an operational error (OE) out of it.

Yeah. A lot of it was just issuing decent clearances and speed restrictions for the arrival transitions into Nashville. Plus the various other aircrafts on frequency. Maybe that’s the norm for that sector, but it seemed a bit overloaded to me.

 

[mscard88]

College football games on in the break room tv. Ok, let's go minimum manning boys.

 

[luvflyin]

Yesterday evening I flew up toward Nashville and after being handed off to Memphis Center I noticed the controller on frequency was the same guy for both the Hi and Low Sectors. Typically on my previous flights it has been one controller for the Low and a separate controller for the High. This made it difficult to get a word in edgewise for us guys down low. I inadvertently stepped on a few guys on the High sector frequency due to the fact that I couldn’t hear them, only the responses from the controller. It seemed a bit chaotic for this reason. Is this the norm? I don’t recall encountering this in the past. Was it just a slow sector? For those that routinely fly with Center, have you encountered this?

Were you flying a little later than usual?

 

[luvflyin]

I figured it was something along those lines. I didn’t know if it was just a slow sector down low so they fuse the two like 125.1/119.2. It just seemed like unusually high volume on the high frequency to have the same controller operate both. Lots of jumbled transmissions. I don’t fly with Center too often so I was just curious.

They don't "fuse" the frequencies. In smaller areas, like Approach Controls it's common to try and get everyone on the same frequency, but in centers because of the size of the sectors you cant be trying to run everything off one antennae or planes will get out of range. Transmissions get stepped on, no way around it.

 

[luvflyin]

Sounds like they probably should have split if the traffic load was that high.

We even had an internal split at my old facility with approach and arrival when traffic increased. Occasionally approach would take it upon themselves to stay combined during heavy traffic. Usually ended up with aircraft talking over one another. Only time I went "down the tubes" was when I stayed combined with a student when I should've split. Amazing I didn't get an operational error (OE) out of it.

So youse waz down the sheeter like ol' tex ritter.

 

[RyanB]

Were you flying a little later than usual?

About 6:30 CDT. Not late by any means. I’m used to our sleepy Charlie airspace to combine both Approach freqs., which makes sense to do so. But this just seemed a higher volume for one controller than what I remember from past experiences. Splitting the two frequencies would have made for better organization. Kinda why I wondered if it’s normally a slower sector and they just had a higher number of traffic at the time. Could have been totally normal, I just don’t fly with Center enough to know.