A B737 ng captain reported the raas system alerted just as ATC was clearing them onto the runway and...

Narrative:

Upon approaching the hold short for runway 34; the raas went off just exactly as tower was apparently trying to issue us a clearance. Suspecting that our call sign might have been somewhere in the unreadable-due-to-raas transmission but unable to understand what tower had just said I stopped the airplane and requested that the first officer ask tower for a repeat of whatever it was they had just said. Tower then cleared us to cross runway 34 and hold short of the center. Because the raas had finally shut itself up we were able to actually hear our clearance; read it back; and comply with it. The raas system was the cause of this event. None of the above boxes apply. Without it pointlessly blaring in our headphones we would not have missed the ATC call; whether it was for us or not; which I'm still not absolutely certain that it was for us because we couldn't hear the tower transmission because of the worse than useless raas warning. We trapped; mitigated; avoided; ducked; dodged; swiss-cheesed; crew coordinated and in general mitigated the hazard that was and is daily caused by this so-called safety system. The raas has recently been greatly improved by removing half of its inane callouts. Now; remove the other half of the system and it will be fixed. Get rid of this safety system before it causes an accident.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B737 NG Captain reported the RAAS system alerted just as ATC was clearing them onto the runway and so the crew had to have ATC repeat the clearance.

Narrative: Upon approaching the hold short for Runway 34; the RAAS went off just exactly as Tower was apparently trying to issue us a clearance. Suspecting that our call sign might have been somewhere in the unreadable-due-to-RAAS transmission but unable to understand what Tower had just said I stopped the airplane and requested that the First Officer ask Tower for a repeat of whatever it was they had just said. Tower then cleared us to cross Runway 34 and hold short of the Center. Because the RAAS had finally shut itself up we were able to actually hear our clearance; read it back; and comply with it. The RAAS system was the CAUSE of this event. None of the above boxes apply. Without it pointlessly blaring in our headphones we would not have missed the ATC call; whether it was for us or not; which I'm still not absolutely certain that it was for us BECAUSE WE COULDN'T HEAR THE TOWER TRANSMISSION BECAUSE OF THE WORSE THAN USELESS RAAS WARNING. We trapped; mitigated; avoided; ducked; dodged; Swiss-cheesed; crew coordinated and in general mitigated the hazard that was and is daily caused by this so-called safety system. The RAAS has recently been greatly improved by removing half of its inane callouts. Now; remove the other half of the system and it will be fixed. GET RID OF THIS SAFETY SYSTEM BEFORE IT CAUSES AN ACCIDENT.

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	971397
Time
Date	201109
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Next Generation Undifferentiated
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Taxi
Flight Plan	IFR
Component
Aircraft Component	GPWS
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

A B737 ng captain reported the raas system alerted just as ATC was clearing them onto the runway and so the crew had to have ATC repeat the clearance.