Narrative:

Flight to bos; with check airman on jumpseat giving me a line check; I was pilot flying. First officer could not get arrival ATIS on ACARS so he went on radio number two to copy ATIS. He wrote 30.37 as bos altimeter; did the performance calculations for landing and we did descent and approach checklists. When we checked-in with approach; we all heard ATC say 'altimeter 30.36'; first officer read back altimeter 30.36 so we set that. We didn't know we had the wrong altimeter; ATC did not correct us; and the check airman didn't notice it either. While on base; being vectored for the ILS 22L in VFR; approach called 'low altitude alert; say altitude'. First officer read back; '3;000 feet; say current altimeter'. ATC said '30.06'; 'we show you at 2;700 feet.' I immediately corrected altitude to 3;000 feet; and set the correct altimeter. None of us on the flight deck ever knew it was anything different than 30.36; but ATC never corrected our read backs; so we did not realize we had a problem.when not getting ATIS on ACARS; we need to both verify altimeter setting; or verify it with ATC; not depend on ATC to correct us.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 Captain reported receiving a low altitude alert from ATC on approach to BOS when their altimeter was mis-set because of a communication breakdown.

Narrative: Flight to BOS; with Check Airman on jumpseat giving me a line check; I was pilot flying. FO could not get arrival ATIS on ACARS so he went on radio number two to copy ATIS. He wrote 30.37 as BOS altimeter; did the performance calculations for landing and we did descent and approach checklists. When we checked-in with Approach; we all heard ATC say 'altimeter 30.36'; FO read back altimeter 30.36 so we set that. We didn't know we had the wrong altimeter; ATC did not correct us; and the Check Airman didn't notice it either. While on base; being vectored for the ILS 22L in VFR; Approach called 'Low altitude alert; say altitude'. FO read back; '3;000 feet; say current altimeter'. ATC said '30.06'; 'we show you at 2;700 feet.' I immediately corrected altitude to 3;000 feet; and set the correct altimeter. None of us on the flight deck ever knew it was anything different than 30.36; but ATC never corrected our read backs; so we did not realize we had a problem.When not getting ATIS on ACARS; we need to both verify altimeter setting; or verify it with ATC; not depend on ATC to correct us.

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.