BE35 pilot reports difficulty obtaining clearance to enter the dca sfra from the north due to the in...

Narrative:

Took off from fdk. Flight was to go from fdk to anp; anp is in the sfra. Sfra flight plan was filed properly. Have been flying the sfra for a very long time. Potomac controllers are having a terrible time of receiving transponder signals (even though we are seeing reply lights on our transponders) and they are also having a difficult time hearing our comms in the area of the sfra boundary that is near fdk through the EMI VOR. This sets up a bad situation of planes being forced to fly circles or racetrack patterns outside the sfra until the controllers hear us and see us on their scopes. We were trying to get contact lower and kept going higher until comm and transponder could be barely usable by the controllers.our beechcraft has fairly modern avionics in it; garmin 430; king 76C; etc. All boxes test out perfectly and work elsewhere in the IFR system fine. The potomac communication and transponder arrangement is poor at best; in my opinion.we did not have any sfra or other regulation problems. I just want to tell someone that this is not a good or safe situation. In heavy traffic situations; you might have a number of planes orbiting outside of the kfdk area and the sfra; this is not a large flying area for multiple planes to be orbiting in an uncontrolled area.please have the FAA fix the transponder problem and the communication problem for flight into the sfra before a midair occurs.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: BE35 pilot reports difficulty obtaining clearance to enter the DCA SFRA from the north due to the inability of ATC to detect his transponder and those of many other pilots below the Class B floor of 3000 feet.

Narrative: Took off from FDK. Flight was to go from FDK to ANP; ANP is in the SFRA. SFRA flight plan was filed properly. Have been flying the SFRA for a very long time. Potomac controllers are having a terrible time of receiving transponder signals (even though we are seeing reply lights on our transponders) and they are also having a difficult time hearing our comms in the area of the SFRA boundary that is near FDK through the EMI VOR. This sets up a bad situation of planes being forced to fly circles or racetrack patterns outside the SFRA until the controllers hear us and see us on their scopes. We were trying to get contact lower and kept going higher until comm and transponder could be barely usable by the controllers.Our Beechcraft has fairly modern avionics in it; Garmin 430; King 76C; etc. All boxes test out perfectly and work elsewhere in the IFR system fine. The Potomac communication and transponder arrangement is poor at best; in my opinion.We did not have any SFRA or other regulation problems. I just want to tell someone that this is not a good or safe situation. In heavy traffic situations; you might have a number of planes orbiting outside of the KFDK area and the SFRA; this is not a large flying area for multiple planes to be orbiting in an uncontrolled area.Please have the FAA fix the transponder problem and the communication problem for flight into the SFRA before a midair occurs.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 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.

Attributes
ACN	1059827
Time
Date	201212
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	PCT.TRACON
State Reference	VA
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Bonanza 35
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Commercial Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30 Flight Crew Total 2200 Flight Crew Type 1000
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

BE35 pilot reports difficulty obtaining clearance to enter the dca sfra from the north due to the inability of ATC to detect his transponder and those of many other pilots below the class B floor of 3000 feet.