ZME controller voiced concern regarding the inability to contact a military aircraft to provide traf...

Narrative:

A T38 was in the ir-066 MTR; a low level route; assigned altitudes 4;000 and below. At a point near point C in the route; there was a VFR target indicating 027 in the mode C. I attempted to call the T38 on UHF guard; but there was an ELT on the frequency. This ELT had been on the frequency for over an hour. When I asked the flm about the issue; and after coordination no one was aware of the situation nor were they taking action to fix it. When the T38 came into an area where I could communicate with him on the normal frequency; I asked him if he had heard the call on guard and he had not. This is not a safe situation as it reduces our ability to communicate in these types of situations. Recommendation; over the last several years we have taken a very relaxed attitude toward elts. We need to change the thought process regarding the emergency frequencies or we need to remove them from the sector.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZME Controller voiced concern regarding the inability to contact a military aircraft to provide traffic because an ELT was blocking the Guard frequency; the reporter claiming the relaxed ELT attitude needs to change.

Narrative: A T38 was in the IR-066 MTR; a low level route; assigned altitudes 4;000 and below. At a point near point C in the route; there was a VFR target indicating 027 in the Mode C. I attempted to call the T38 on UHF guard; but there was an ELT on the frequency. This ELT had been on the frequency for over an hour. When I asked the FLM about the issue; and after coordination no one was aware of the situation nor were they taking action to fix it. When the T38 came into an area where I could communicate with him on the normal frequency; I asked him if he had heard the call on Guard and he had not. This is not a safe situation as it reduces our ability to communicate in these types of situations. Recommendation; over the last several years we have taken a very relaxed attitude toward ELTs. We need to change the thought process regarding the emergency frequencies or we need to remove them from the sector.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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	956519
Time
Date	201106
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZME.ARTCC
State Reference	TN
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Talon (T38)
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Enroute
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types

ZME controller voiced concern regarding the inability to contact a military aircraft to provide traffic because an ELT was blocking the guard frequency; the reporter claiming the relaxed ELT attitude needs to change.