Narrative:

We were unable to establish listening watch or make company position reports for about the first 2.5 hours of flight over northeastern brazil. This was my first trip in a 757. I flew the trip several months when it was a 767. We have a safety issue now that needs to be addressed. Filling up a 757 with fuel and using its maximum range is not a problem. The problem comes when you add limited alternates and unreliable communications. The ACARS network along the northeast coast of brazil is unreliable to inoperative. Coming home yesterday; we did not have ACARS for about the first 2.5 hours. We were not able to establish HF communications for several hours on any of our listed frequencies. Brazil's ATC communication is adequate for standard; normal operations. They will not be able to relay or coordinate communications satisfactorily in an emergency. We assisted a us registered aircraft a few months ago with an emergency in that area as he was not getting any help from ATC; although they were trying. They just don't have the english skills to depart from the normal operations script. The satcom in our 767's masked the unreliable ACARS problem. Dispatch advised me yesterday; 'it is difficult to maintain ACARS contact south of belem almost all the way to destination.' dispatch said this has been a problem since we changed from the 767 to the 757 on this trip. I understand that a few of our 757's have satcom installed. Until the ACARS network is reliable; I would require satcom on all these flights. Due to limited reliable alternates; the south america operational differences and unreliable company communications; we need to be conservative with our fuel planning. When the weather is questionable; we need comfortable and conservative fuel options. We need to get satcom on this leg and we need to find out why the datacom-sita ACARS coverage listed in our operational information; latin america communications page is not working.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B757 Captain reports spotty ACARS and HF coverage over northeastern Brazil; making communications with Dispatch difficult to impossible.

Narrative: We were unable to establish listening watch or make company position reports for about the first 2.5 hours of flight over northeastern Brazil. This was my first trip in a 757. I flew the trip several months when it was a 767. We have a safety issue now that needs to be addressed. Filling up a 757 with fuel and using its maximum range is not a problem. The problem comes when you add limited alternates and unreliable communications. The ACARS network along the northeast coast of Brazil is unreliable to inoperative. Coming home yesterday; we did not have ACARS for about the first 2.5 hours. We were not able to establish HF communications for several hours on any of our listed frequencies. Brazil's ATC communication is adequate for standard; normal operations. They will not be able to relay or coordinate communications satisfactorily in an emergency. We assisted a US registered aircraft a few months ago with an emergency in that area as he was not getting any help from ATC; although they were trying. They just don't have the English skills to depart from the normal operations script. The SATCOM in our 767's masked the unreliable ACARS problem. Dispatch advised me yesterday; 'it is difficult to maintain ACARS contact south of Belem almost all the way to destination.' Dispatch said this has been a problem since we changed from the 767 to the 757 on this trip. I understand that a few of our 757's have SATCOM installed. Until the ACARS network is reliable; I would require SATCOM on all these flights. Due to limited reliable alternates; the South America operational differences and unreliable company communications; we need to be conservative with our fuel planning. When the weather is questionable; we need comfortable and conservative fuel options. We need to get SATCOM on this leg and we need to find out why the Datacom-SITA ACARS coverage listed in our operational information; Latin America communications page is not working.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.