Squawk Ident

[DICKUS]

Could some of you please clear up a small debate amongst us. When we are asked to squawk ident, do you expect us to reply to the instruction over the R/T; or is it sufficient to merely press the ident button. The assumption being that a visual clue on your screen when we press ident is evidence that we have heard and understood the instruction. CAP 413 implies that we should reply to every SSR instruction.
Secondly, when checking in with a new agency, do you expect us to check-in with C/S only, or with C/S and F/L on the initial call?

[ATC Watcher]

ICAO standard Identification procedures stipulates that you have to reply to an SSR ident request on the R/T. Only by a visual corrolation of the ident on the Radar display and of your R/T confirmation of execution can positive identification be established.
You also have , upon checking in the R/T for the first time state, besides your Flight Plan R/T call sign, your Altitude or Flight Level. This is to veryfy the accuracy of your Mode C altitude reporting.
And this has to be repeated when contacting any new ATC facility.
These are the ICAO procedures but I suspect UK CAA is following them to the letter as well.
This is not only administrative steps, these procedures make a lot of sense for us. In today's environement, it is not unusual for an area ( Maastrich LNO/SPI area for instance) to have well over 100 SSR tracks in one sector at the same time,where only 25 or 30 are of real interest to that sector, therefore proper identification on first contact is vital.Likewise wrong Mode C transponders are detected everyday thanks to this procedure as well.

[bill]

Further to ATC Watcher's reply, as well as being a requirement please do report your cleared level on first contact, it can save time and confusion and wasted R/T time if previous sector/agency has cleared you to a level we are not expecting you at, for whatever reason, and (obviously) is good practice from a safety viewpoint.

[135 9]

Why is it SIA has a horrible habit of never reading cleared level on first contact? Standard call is "Approach singapore... passing ... climbing". Then when asked to "confirm cleared level" they just give their flight-planned level (I deal with departures that are given an intermediate level due overlying sector).

Very frustrating, always end up with "SIA... maintain Flight level ...!" wasting R/T.