Holding PTT Switch Down Long Enough

[Shane VanHoven]

Hey all, VATSIM has new life for me with the new audio. I can easily spend 8 hours working real airplanes and come home and actually enjoy connecting to VATSIM because this audio is so spot on. One thing I've noticed while flying around the country since the update, is that controllers and pilots alike tend to "clip" the end of their transmissions. That is, releasing their PTT before they're actually done talking. When receiving an instruction, it's possible to miss an important part of a clearance like a heading or altitude because the transmission was clipped. Not the biggest deal, but all this adds up to save time during busy sessions if you have to continuously repeat instructions. If you find that pilots are commonly asking you to repeat, try counting to "one" in your head before you unkey.

In the old days we could just blame out deficiencies on not being able to understand the pilots/controllers but now we have no excuse! I even found myself making extra transmissions during a recent session just cause I liked hearing readbacks. Good luck!

Happy talking!

[Antony Radley]

Something that has taken me off guard is the instant reply you get from pilots - i'm used to sitting back taking a sip of coffee or a bite of cake before I get a readback, but since AFV its instant something to rebuild into the skillset.

[Robert Shearman Jr]

Great advice, Shane.  In the transportation shop I used to work at, we trained our drivers to mentally add the word "click" to the beginning and end of their message while keying and unkeying.  "(click) 315 to base, Silver Spring tally 36, 8 minutes late. (click)"

[Dylan Lundberg]

This is a great piece, Shane! I too (like Antony) used to take little breaks...whether it be I'm going to move my chair, check my texts, etc. while I wait for the readback! It's a new culture - and some of us need slight adjustments! 

[Sarah Alawami]

As an amateur in the real world I have  a nasty habit of  quick keying. This has resulted in half of my call being chopped off on a good day. What I do is count to 3 before speaking when  keying, then count to 3 or so before unkeying. My radio is dead right now, but I hope I make sense.

[Tom Campagnola]

So, what i do is when receiving a clearance. i read back and end with my callsign. eg. CENTER SAYS "DAL 1207, climb maintain 5000, turn left to heading 350 deg". I respond... CLICK  "Roger, Climb maintain 5000, turn right 350 DAL 1207"....UNCLICK. As soon as i unclick., Center is calling UAL 2345, climb ......DAH DAH DAH  that tells me he heard and understands....If i wait 3 seconds after i announce my callsign to release the transmit button.... I will be gettin some angry eyes from the approach controller.

[Robert Shearman Jr]

Three full seconds is most certainly a bit of overkill.  With the old voice system it didn't matter since simultaneous transmissions would simply merge, and the next one would be heard over the extraneous dead-air (or, really, it wouldn't be, because it would still be buffering with that insipid delay, lol).  But a "quick three-count" is probably okay.  If anything, you get that 0.1 seconds of block tone as the two transmissions overlap slightly, which I personally find kind of badass.