Narrative:

The plan was to fly VFR to sightsee the valley east of alamogordo (alm); NM. Then after reaching alm; file IFR to nogales; az (ols) the destination. VFR flight following with abq center was used for the first phase of flight into alm. I requested an IFR to ols from abq center and they declined and advised to contact flight services (FSS). I switched to fs frequency abq radio but it was weak. Request the IFR flight plan and provided the information but lost contact before being able to confirm. I continued westward and switched [back] to abq center; but did not immediately regain contact.I encounter a major distraction at this time; the engine began to surge. I could not determine the issue but the sound was clearly changing. All gauges were good. I'm also an a&P and continued to try and diagnose the problem and determine whether a precautionary landing was needed. It turned out that the batteries in my anr headset were dying and causing what sounded like an engine surge with the anr feature fading in and out. Went back to abq center and re-established comm with them to get the IFR; but about that time both GPS devices became erratic and unreliable. Had never experienced this before. ATC advised they could not give me the IFR until I cleared the R-5107 airspace to the west. They also gave me phone numbers to call. Later I learned that the military was testing their GPS blocking system. It works well. After clearing to the west; I picked up the IFR to ols and the rest of the flight was fortunately uneventful. I have spoken with abq center and have left multiple messages for the white sands missile range air space manager.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: General Aviation pilot reported engine surging while on a sightseeing flight east of ALM; followed shortly by GPS failure. The engine surging was tackled first and was determined to be caused by weak batteries in the noise canceling headset. When ATC was contacted for an IFR clearance; the reporter was advised that the GPS outage was caused by military testing and that he was in R-5107.

Narrative: The plan was to fly VFR to sightsee the valley east of Alamogordo (ALM); NM. Then after reaching ALM; file IFR to Nogales; AZ (OLS) the destination. VFR flight following with ABQ center was used for the first phase of flight into ALM. I requested an IFR to OLS from ABQ center and they declined and advised to contact Flight Services (FSS). I switched to FS frequency ABQ radio but it was weak. Request the IFR flight plan and provided the information but lost contact before being able to confirm. I continued westward and switched [back] to ABQ center; but did not immediately regain contact.I encounter a major distraction at this time; the engine began to surge. I could not determine the issue but the sound was clearly changing. All gauges were good. I'm also an A&P and continued to try and diagnose the problem and determine whether a precautionary landing was needed. It turned out that the batteries in my ANR headset were dying and causing what sounded like an engine surge with the ANR feature fading in and out. Went back to ABQ center and re-established comm with them to get the IFR; but about that time both GPS devices became erratic and unreliable. Had never experienced this before. ATC advised they could not give me the IFR until I cleared the R-5107 airspace to the west. They also gave me phone numbers to call. Later I learned that the Military was testing their GPS blocking system. It works well. After clearing to the west; I picked up the IFR to OLS and the rest of the flight was fortunately uneventful. I have spoken with ABQ center and have left multiple messages for the White Sands Missile Range air space manager.

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.