Seeb Tower (Muscat) - Fix your RADIOS! (Photo tour)
 

Welcome, boys and girls, to a pictorial tour of Seeb Tower, in Muscat, Oman.
;)

As you all are aware, we here at the tower are faced with delivering the highest-decibel, ear-screeching feed-back sounds into your ears as you operate into and out of here. :uhoh: :ouch: :ooh: :*

Of course, we do know from your numerous complaints these sounds are being delivered to you, but as you all are aware, your complaints fall on DEAF EARS (pun intended) by our management. :rolleyes:

Let's begin out tour. On the left, you will be delighted to see the source of that terrible, loud "FWWwwwEEEEE!!!" we are famous for, right at the end of our transmission you all have had the pleasure of hearing, and legitimately complaining about, for years now. Please ignore "Bob" as he likes being photographed:
http://www.k6vva.com/iota/na178/images/k6vvarig.jpg

And here we see our newest trainee at Seeb Tower, eagerly awaiting to try out the latest radio equipment (according to Oman standards, that is):
http://www.qth.com/ka9fox/cameron/cameron-ham1.jpg

Fix things, you say? We say, WE ARE!! Have a look around that corner over there, and peer into the finest technical repair station this side of Trivandrum! Shhhh...technicians working hard here:
http://www.radioing.com/museum/oldham.jpg

Remember, we do have good controllers, it's just this new equipment that is being raved about by our managers all of the time...
http://www.w9wze.org/Equipment/Photo...io_station.jpg

...has led us to believe these same managers were in the Public Relations Department of the story "The Emperor's New Clothes" (the ones who declared that their leader had "clothes made of the finest cloth in all the land!", yet he was as nekked as a Jaybird?!!):
http://allvintagestore.com/Children%...s%20record.jpg

We now conclude our tour for today and hope this has enlightened you as to why most of you are now going deaf who use this airport.

HEY MUSCAT...YOU GOT MORE MONEY THAN YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH...SO GET YOUR MANAGERS TO FIX THE TOWER RADIO's… PLEASE!! This ongoing problem there, which has YET to be fixed (even though attempts have been tried), is driving your user-pilots batty!!
:ugh: :ugh: :ugh:

Cheers,
R.D.

Another main reason i would think of is that the controllers might keep the system on the speakers not through their headsets.

Hi Alto. I agree you have a plausible explanation for some situations, but it unfortunately isn't the case at Seeb Tower. They are using headsets, and it IS a known issue - for years.

The only reason I can come up with is there is some fault in a minority of the controller's PTT (Push To Talk) buttons, and that sets up some type of feed-back. It's not all of the time, but when it happens, its usually with one controller, and the sound is truly sonic-blast-loud!

I've heard complaints from EK, British Airways, Qatar, Gulfair, Indian, Lufthansa, and the good-ol' home-town boys, Oman Air. The controllers even go as far to get a complaint confirmed by other aircraft right there and then, and they all have agreed it is loud.

This isn't the remote-transceiver issue the Centre has had for a while...that is a separate issue. This is is JUST at the Tower.

With such surplus cash Oman is reaping from the over-priced petroleum-products recently, how about you guys at Seeb GET YOUR RADIOS FIXED!!

headset vs speaker
 

Actually Ray, I think Alto has hit the nail on the head.

If you have the speaker selected, it will still give feedback if the headset is worn. You have to turn OFF the speaker before it works properly.

The fact that it is not every transmission would tend to indicate a feedback rather than a switching problem with a headset.

However, the headsets are getting a bit long in the tooth, maybe a techie type could give his thoughts?

Did you also get score from the Kuwait and Saudie match in the background....good chance it was the qualifier night and Oz lost to Kuwait 2 nil ! :ouch:

Need to revert to the ol Vary pistol and land on the green flare...just don't let them rip in the tower..... :eek:

Actually, in the case of MCT Tower, this well intentioned guess was off the nail. That is true in many situations of feedback (heck, I've had the speaker up accidentally when transmitting, myself, a few times!), but not in the MCT Tower case. I've asked them to turn their speaker down to see if it made any difference...they assured me it was off, and they go further to state they are aware it is indeed a wiring / circuitry issue. The PTT's, from my Tower-visits in the past, are individual as opposed to "desk" specific, too, leading my thoughts to that. It could be something along the way and not the PTT's though.

Regardless, SOMETHING IS "BROKEN"!!

I wish it was an easy fix...it likely isn't, but they CAN fix it. Money talks, and they're not willing to part with any it seems. It's a known issue that is embarrassing to the boyz in the tower...

~R.D.