A320
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Multiengine
Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown; Distraction
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Other / Unknown; Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Overcame Equipment Problem; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Aircraft; Company Policy; Procedure
Coming into ZZZ we received constant radio #1 interference from ACARS burst. On reaching cruise we decided to turn off the ACARS per a new procedure. We put SELCAL into radio #2 and took ACARS temporarily off line. About 75 miles west of ZZZZZ we received SELCAL from Dispatch telling us Center was looking for us. We tried to contact them to no avail. We then re-contacted Dispatch through SELCAL and they told us to contact Center; which we did. We were NORDO for we were told about 50 minutes. We were flying our exact flight plan the entire time. Center requested I call them and I did on landing. We did not have a deviation; but they were worried about the prolonged period of time of no radio contact. I explained to him the problem we are dealing with on new aircraft and that we miss radio communications at alarming rate due to ACARS interference on radio #1. I feel this definitely contributed to problem; along with new procedure which does not have us monitor 121.5 constantly. This would have given us a much quicker alert that we had no active Center frequency. It takes some time for ATC to contact Dispatch to contact SELCAL and patch us through to Dispatch. We need to immediately change our policy with NEO aircraft until a permanent fix (i.e. relocation to radio #1 antennae) to require crews to not use radio #1 other than to monitor 121.5. The number 2 radio should be used for all ATC communications as it does not get interference from ACARS burst transmissions. On our first flight we caught descend to 7000 ft; but had to get them to clarify to slow to 210 as the ACARS burst covered up entire portion of clearance. This is becoming a serious safety issue; as crews are missing clearances. Sometimes ACARS burst are minutes apart. Sometimes they come almost constantly. We need to fix this problem.
Reporter stated their Company and Airbus are aware of this problem. The Reporter described 'work around fixes' the Company has implemented to mitigate the effects of the interference.
A320 NEO Captain reported ACARS burst transmissions interfered with the radios; causing the crew to miss a frequency change.