B737 pilot reported a congested ATC frequency and receiving late descent; late turn to final approac...

Narrative:

While receiving vectors for final approach to ewr ILS 22L; we requested speed reduction from 250 knots within 5 miles of final approach course at teb. We were assigned descent to 3;000 feet; slow to 210 knots and heading 160 to join the localizer only. We believe a second assignment to heading 200 degrees to join was blocked and was not heard by us. ATC queried our heading to join and informed us that we had been assigned 200 degrees to join and to now fly 190 knots or greater; but localizer only. No approach clearance. We were unable to get onto the frequency to request lower until after a full dot high of GS. We were finally cleared for approach from well above with a tailwind. The approach was completed within stable approach criteria but we were turned late; slowed late and descended and cleared for approach late. This caused increased difficulty in flying the approach. We both never heard the 200 degree turn to join which was questioned.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 pilot reported a congested ATC frequency and receiving late descent; late turn to final approach course; and late clearance to slow airspeed during vectors to ILS at Newark.

Narrative: While receiving vectors for final approach to EWR ILS 22L; we requested speed reduction from 250 knots within 5 miles of final approach course at TEB. We were assigned descent to 3;000 feet; slow to 210 knots and heading 160 to join the localizer only. We believe a second assignment to heading 200 degrees to join was blocked and was not heard by us. ATC queried our heading to join and informed us that we had been assigned 200 degrees to join and to now fly 190 knots or greater; but localizer only. No approach clearance. We were unable to get onto the frequency to request lower until after a full dot high of GS. We were finally cleared for approach from well above with a tailwind. The approach was completed within stable approach criteria but we were turned late; slowed late and descended and cleared for approach late. This caused increased difficulty in flying the approach. We both never heard the 200 degree turn to join which was questioned.

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.

Attributes
ACN	1703497
Time
Date	201911
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	EWR.Airport
State Reference	NJ
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Other / Unknown
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Multiengine
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Track / Heading All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Unstabilized Approach

B737 pilot reported a congested ATC frequency and receiving late descent; late turn to final approach course; and late clearance to slow airspeed during vectors to ILS at newark.