Medium Large Transport; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 3
Troubleshooting; Human-Machine Interface; Communication Breakdown; Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Other / Unknown
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance
ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings
MFR Tower requested release for Aircraft X via the rundown list. I released Aircraft X watched the target tag up; then handed the tag off to center. I was waiting to hear the pilot's initial call when Tower called on the shout line and advised that Aircraft X could not get ahold of me on my frequency. I was on the main transmitter and receiver; so I switched to the standby transmitter and receiver and advised the tower to have Aircraft X try again. I heard nothing on the frequency; so I called back to tower to have them turn Aircraft X on course and switch them to Center.Shortly after that Center called; advising that they had Aircraft X and requested control. I gave Center control. Then Tower called advising they weren't able to get a hold of Aircraft X. I advised them that the pilot had switched to Center; and tower and I coordinated a few frequency checks; all of which failed. The tower could not hear me; and I could not hear them. I called tech ops into the TRACON. The Tech Ops person reset something; and we managed to get the standby transmitter and receiver back. Then; Tech Ops informed me that this was a known issue; and the contractor in charge of this knows that a switch between our facility and the equipment at the transmitter/Receiver site sometimes fails; and we lose our communication ability in that area. I was shocked. We can lose our frequencies at any time; and not even know it? What if this had happened when vectoring multiple aircraft for an instrument approach? The Minimum Vectoring Altitudes in that area are extremely variable; if we lose communication with an aircraft it would be extremely dangerous. We have an emergency override socket for our headsets; but I don't know if that is on the same circuit that fails or not.Have the contractor fix the issue; and penalize them until it's fixed. Since this is a systemic and known issue; there is no excuse for this to still be so unreliable. This is a serious safety issue!
EUG TRACON Controller reported that after being unable to communicate with an aircraft; was advised that the transmitter/receiver site routinely fails and it is a known problem; but nothing has been done to fix it.