LATCC is too quiet !!

[White Knight]

For some odd reason London controllers are the quietest in Europe. Not kidding you. Inbound from Amsterdam, Maastricht, Copenhagen, Brest, Paris FIR's into London always means having to turn the radio volume UP. Trouble is that all the other pilots transmissions are suddenly much louder.Why is this ??

To answer my own question, and see what you LATCC guys have to say about this this is what I was told by one conroller... .En route from DUB to LGW a few days back - was working the 133.07 sector - when I told the controller that I could hardly hear him. His reply was that you'd all been told to position your mikes at least an inch away from your lips. INCREDIBLE, when we pilots are told to make sure that the mike is right up as close to the mouth as we can get them. When he moved it back to his lips he was strength 5 and clear as a bell. Is this edict true ?? If so it is usually just annoying as we strain to hear what's said and at worst could lead to potential conflicts when we mishear something vital.

Any thoughts on this one ??

[Chilli Monster]

White Night

Probably a good idea to read <a href="http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=6&t=001669" target="_blank">NERC - the story so far</a>

It is a known problem since the move apparently

CM

[Captain Windsock]

I can confirm in TC we have been told the mike should be 1" in front and 1" below the mouth

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

You should never speak directly into a microphone to prevent sibilance.

[Max Angle]

I know that the poor radio quality is being worked on but it does seem to be very controller specific, some people are loud and clear and others are very hard to hear. I don't know if anyone else has noticed it but it seems to me that the controllers operating the more Northerly sectors seem clearer than than the Southerly ones. Perhaps some areas of the system are better than others.

The main problem on the flighdeck is the volume (gain I suppose really) of the transmissions. I find myself constantly adjusting the volume, other a/c come through very loud so you turn it down, then the controller speaks and you can't hear the message so you turn it back up, it gets very annoying after a while. Even with the volume up the a lot of the tranmissions sound "soft" and just don't seem to grab my attention anymore, I find myself missing calls because there is something else going on at the time.

I do hope it gets sorted soon, at the moment it is most unsatisfactory. London ATC have about the worst transmission quality of anybody I can think of in Europe at the moment.

[CUNIM]

I was once told that I sounded as though my head was in a bucket. I immediately put the wastepaper basket (plastic) on my head and re-transmitted. 5 x 5 was the answer. Perhaps you chaps should try my exciting remedy?

Luv and xxx's

me <img src="rolleyes.gif" border="0">