Bay of Bengal Lack of HF reception in Kolkata FIR
Hello,
Apologies if this is a well known problem: Consider me new to the route.
What is the accepted procedure for flying across the Bay of Bengal in Kolkata's airspace on L301?
Yangon provides a VHF frequency handoff westbound for Kolkata....no response from Kolkata. I then begin trying all published HF frequencies after transmitting a blind position report on the published primary frequencies. No response.
Luckily the CPDLC seems to work but even that can be somewhat sporadic with seemingly random terminations and log-ons re-accepted by VECF.
Am I a rube for trying this hard to contact them? The most frustrating thing is that sometimes the VHF and HF seem to work OK, other days it does not work at all, and still others one will work but not the other. Not ideal for situataions where weather deviations may be required and CPDLC message response can be 5+ minutes and 50+ NM. Are IATA in-flight broadcast procedures being utilized in this FIR? I usually hear several other aircraft trying in vain to contact Kolkata simultaneously. Even more ridiculous is the supposed requirement for a call 10 minutes prior to the FIR boundary.
Should we really be relying solely on sporadic CPDLC for ATC comms in this airspace?
Thank you.