Coping with low R/T readability?
How do you guys cope when the R/T readability is less than five?
I'm pretty much towards the end of my PPL(H) and in the process of building up the required solo hours. I've talked to Halfpenny Green, Cosford, Gloucester, and Shobdon. All have been loud and clear.
Yesterday I took a trip up to Shawbury zone and through their MATZ. I could hardly tell a word the guy was saying, partly because he was speaking quickly but mostly because the audio was distorted and not very clear. I even had to ask for my sqawk code three times to get all four digits when he said them slowly. He gave me some traffic info a couple of times and all I could make out was something something something left to right something something. I just felt I was going "say again" constantly, and I could tell he was getting a bit pi$$ed off with me.
I don't normally have a problem with my R/T and this just felt like a bit of a joke, and I was glad to get off the frequency. I'm fine when it's loud and clear but this pushed my work load too far and my flying suffered.
Is it just a question of experience and you get used to picking out the information in the noise and distortion? Or do you have some other techniques?