Narrative:

A80 has been having persistent issues with various frequencies for weeks. I was working tar-H feeding ar-a in a triple arrival operation. The ar-a controller; who is training a cpc/it at the time; tells the supervisor that he is having radio issues on 118.35 with aircraft receiving feedback not being able to hear him. It was suggested that he switch to 124.72 as an alternate frequency. However; ar-V was currently using 124.72 because 127.25 was already out of service. With the 'go to' backup frequency already in use; the supervisor on the wall had the ar-a controller continue to use 118.35 on the orange emergency jack because aircraft said it was a little better but still receiving feedback. With no alternate frequency being used; I suggested that maybe we should lower the rate and go back to a dual operation and got a chuckle from the supervisor. The ar-a controller was being forced to work with a questionably bad frequency with an increased traffic volume due to weather pushing arrivals to the south and haze obscuring the field making visual approaches more work to achieve.some of our supervisors need more training on the equipment at A80 and need to adjust the operation if safety is becoming an issue. When someone has been placed on a wall to supervise the operation; we should be able to count on them to resolve potentially dangerous issues with the operation instead of telling everyone to press on and continue like the operation is normal. Watching the supervisor yesterday 'poke' around on the rdvs [rapid deployment voice switch] asking people what different frequencies were used for was a complete joke. Then; to watch him give up and just tell the ar-a controller to continue with a bad frequency was an outrage. The operation should have been slowed on account of equipment issues until a safe solution was found and ar-a should not have been open until we had three reliable frequencies.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A80 TRACON Controller reported radio issues and a back up frequency that was not available for use.

Narrative: A80 has been having persistent issues with various frequencies for weeks. I was working TAR-H feeding AR-A in a triple arrival operation. The AR-A controller; who is training a CPC/IT at the time; tells the Supervisor that he is having radio issues on 118.35 with aircraft receiving feedback not being able to hear him. It was suggested that he switch to 124.72 as an alternate frequency. However; AR-V was currently using 124.72 because 127.25 was already out of service. With the 'go to' backup frequency already in use; the Supervisor on the wall had the AR-A controller continue to use 118.35 on the orange emergency jack because aircraft said it was a little better but still receiving feedback. With no alternate frequency being used; I suggested that maybe we should lower the rate and go back to a dual operation and got a chuckle from the Supervisor. The AR-A Controller was being forced to work with a questionably bad frequency with an increased traffic volume due to weather pushing arrivals to the south and haze obscuring the field making visual approaches more work to achieve.Some of our Supervisors need more training on the equipment at A80 and need to adjust the operation if safety is becoming an issue. When someone has been placed on a wall to supervise the operation; we should be able to count on them to resolve potentially dangerous issues with the operation instead of telling everyone to press on and continue like the operation is normal. Watching the Supervisor yesterday 'poke' around on the RDVS [Rapid Deployment Voice Switch] asking people what different frequencies were used for was a complete joke. Then; to watch him give up and just tell the AR-A controller to continue with a bad frequency was an outrage. The operation should have been slowed on account of equipment issues until a safe solution was found and AR-A should not have been open until we had three reliable frequencies.

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.