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Pao tower controller reported that an unreliable; aged; failure prone communications panel is unsafe for use.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1689990 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201910 |
| Local Time Of Day | 0001-0600 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | PAO.Tower |
| State Reference | CA |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | No Aircraft |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Local |
| Qualification | Air Traffic Control Fully Certified |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy |
Narrative:
While working various positions in the tower cab; it became apparent there was an issue with the shout line to nct. Every position reported calls sounded near muted level quiet with static on the line. This made routine coordination extremely difficult as pao had to ask for the nct controller to repeat themselves several times before the message was understood. Nct did not appear to have any difficulty hearing pao controllers. Pao uses a very old communications panel that has been seeing an increasing number of issues recently. This is the second time in a one week period that there has been difficulty communicating with nct via a shout line; although the problems were not identical to each other. A new communication panel should be more reliable and result in fewer interruptions. Permission granted to share a de-identified copy of this report.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: PAO Tower Controller reported that an unreliable; aged; failure prone communications panel is unsafe for use.
Narrative: While working various positions in the Tower cab; it became apparent there was an issue with the shout line to NCT. Every position reported calls sounded near muted level quiet with static on the line. This made routine coordination extremely difficult as PAO had to ask for the NCT controller to repeat themselves several times before the message was understood. NCT did not appear to have any difficulty hearing PAO controllers. PAO uses a very old communications panel that has been seeing an increasing number of issues recently. This is the second time in a one week period that there has been difficulty communicating with NCT via a shout line; although the problems were not identical to each other. A new communication panel should be more reliable and result in fewer interruptions. Permission granted to share a de-identified copy of this report.
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.