Is voice on unicom a thing now?

[Jan Vanthuyne 1028545]

Since the new AFV I encountered number of pilots now using voice only on unicom and was wondering if it has became the norm as I didn't see any mention of this here or anywhere else.. I am still under the impression that while some may be able to transmit and receive voice on unicom some others still couldn't and text comms was still the way to go.

[Roger Hanson]

It was announced over 5 weeks ago and went live 3 weeks ago. Theres lots of threads that mention it and you should have received an email NOTAM around the end of September.

 

Details here

[Jan Vanthuyne 1028545]

I am well aware of the AFV launch announcement and just went ahead and re-read it just to make sure but I still couldn't find nowhere that says voice while over unicom is the new standard..

[Andreas Fuchs]

It will get established over time. I'd just use voice for UNICOM.

[Jan Vanthuyne 1028545]

Ok I found the answer on another thread.. yes indeed voice is now the preferred way of communication while on unicom since AFV went live, although it is currently limited to a 15nm radius.

 

Thanks all

[Andreas Fuchs]

Yes, actually it's 15NM around your aircraft. If another aircraft's radio-range starts penetrating your radio-range you'll 15NM*2=30NM.

[Lars Bergmann]

This still poses a problem of sorts. VATSIM has always gone to great lengths to enable text pilots to fly on the network. People have proposed removing this option countless times and VATSIM has stood by their "we are being as inclusive as possible" policy time and time again. In the abscence of the ability to check the voice capabilities of other aircraft (an ability controllers have) it seems strange to go for a "we are [Mod - Happy Thoughts]uming every other aircraft is at least /r" policy on UNICOM. Or is it just accepted that 5-10% of pilots (this percentage is a wild guess) will not be able to receive traffic information on unicom?

 

I'm not a strong proponent of text usage on the network, I'm merely raising this issue and asking for clarification.

[Andreas Fuchs]

Two reasons for "voice kind-of-only":

 

1) with AFV there is no more excuse for "voice-refusers". Even while some (new?) pilots do not feel comfortable talking on voice yet, they can certainly be asked to listen on UNICOM and other frequencies.

 

2) deaf pilots, who nobody wants to exclude, have other clues of determining whether there are other pilots around UNICOM airspace (TCAS in their cockpits, swift has a real-time traffic-radar similar to FsInn, there are nice programs such as LittleNavMap that show you the position of other online traffic etc.) and then announce their intentions/position updates via text so voice-pilots can still pick up the presence of text-only pilots.

[nebojsa milosavljevic]

Voice on UNICOM is beautiful, but text should always be there, just in case there are issues. My two cents.

 

nebojsa

[Andreas Fuchs]

Of course, text should be available, but not mandatory.

[Ross Carlson]

For what it's worth, my intention going forward with UNICOM is to use voice until I see another pilot transmit on text, at which time I will switch to text for as long as I am a factor for that text pilot. In other words, I [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ume everyone is full voice until they demonstrate otherwise, at which time I'll [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ume they are text-only. I won't [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ume anyone is receive-only unless they explicitly say so in their text transmissions.

[Robert Shearman Jr]

my intention going forward with UNICOM is to use voice until I see another pilot transmit on text, at which time I will switch to text for as long as I am a factor for that text pilot.

In the absence of specific guidance otherwise from network officials, likewise. Except, I will probably stay on voice but attempt to *supplement* with equivalent (albeit heavily abbreviated) text transmissions.

[Andreas Fuchs]

For what it's worth, my intention going forward with UNICOM is to use voice until I see another pilot transmit on text, at which time I will switch to text for as long as I am a factor for that text pilot. In other words, I [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ume everyone is full voice until they demonstrate otherwise, at which time I'll [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ume they are text-only. I won't [Mod - Happy Thoughts]ume anyone is receive-only unless they explicitly say so in their text transmissions.

Absolutely the way I do it, too. Everyone should be doing this.

[Simon Kelsey]

In terms of official guidance, the Code of Conduct states in section A14 that

 

Voice is the preferred method of communication on VATSIM

 

Previously there was a technical limitation which meant that voice was unavailable other than for active ATC positions. That technical limitation has now been removed with AFV. CoC A14 thus continues to apply!

 

As others have said, the remainder of A14 talks about ensuring that text-only pilots are also accomodated appropriately and Andreas, Ross and Rob have outlined some ways to do that!

[Sean Harrison]

Adding onto this, it has been amazing to see how many pilots connect and never tune to 122.800 (my source for this is https://afv-map.vatsim.net/ )

 

Isn’t monitoring 122.800 if atc is not providing you a service a rule?

[Robert Shearman Jr]

Yep.

 

"B5 - Pilots flying through uncontrolled airspace shall monitor VHF radio frequency 122.800 or other designated "UNICOM" frequency until they come under air traffic control coverage. Where another pilot may benefit, a pilot shall transmit their intentions on the designated unicom frequency."

 

https://www.vatsim.net/docomeents/code-of-conduct

[Mike Lehkamp]

Two reasons for "voice kind-of-only":

 

1) with AFV there is no more excuse for "voice-refusers". Even while some (new?) pilots do not feel comfortable talking on voice yet, they can certainly be asked to listen on UNICOM and other frequencies.

 

2) deaf pilots, who nobody wants to exclude, have other clues of determining whether there are other pilots around UNICOM airspace (TCAS in their cockpits, swift has a real-time traffic-radar similar to FsInn, there are nice programs such as LittleNavMap that show you the position of other online traffic etc.) and then announce their intentions/position updates via text so voice-pilots can still pick up the presence of text-only pilots.

 

Great explanation and I so happy you all chose to go this route!!! This way those that can not hear can still benefit as we benefit as well from their presence. Thank you.