A B737-700 flight crew reported they had difficulty contacting atl approach on a STAR arrival; citin...

Narrative:

During descent on the koltt 2 to atl; we received an RA requiring a climb. Before the RA we attempted to contact approach numerous times to no avail due to blocked transmissions and high controller workload. We complied with the RA; attempted to report our altitude excursion again to no avail. After returning to the last assigned clearance we elected to change radios (to the number two) thinking our original radio had failed. We were then called by approach with the admonishment that for the last '30 miles we have been trying to call you.' at the next frequency change we switched back to the original communication radio (the number one) with no issues. We landed uneventfully.I feel we handled this event well using good airmanship and applied superior CRM skills. In general; two radio voice communications is (in my opinion) a very archaic way of controlling airplanes in congested airspace.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737-700 flight crew reported they had difficulty contacting ATL Approach on a STAR arrival; citing frequency congestion and controller workload as contributing.

Narrative: During descent on the KOLTT 2 to ATL; we received an RA requiring a climb. Before the RA we attempted to contact Approach numerous times to no avail due to blocked transmissions and high Controller workload. We complied with the RA; attempted to report our altitude excursion again to no avail. After returning to the last assigned clearance we elected to change radios (to the number two) thinking our original radio had failed. We were then called by Approach with the admonishment that for the last '30 miles we have been trying to call you.' At the next frequency change we switched back to the original communication radio (the number one) with no issues. We landed uneventfully.I feel we handled this event well using good airmanship and applied superior CRM skills. In general; two radio voice communications is (in my opinion) a very archaic way of controlling airplanes in congested airspace.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1247091
Time
Date	201503
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	A80.TRACON
State Reference	GA
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737-700
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	STAR KOLTT2
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 134 Flight Crew Type 13000
Person 2
Function	First Officer
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 178
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Conflict Airborne Conflict Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude

A B737-700 flight crew reported they had difficulty contacting atl approach on a STAR arrival; citing frequency congestion and controller workload as contributing.