B737-700
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 630
Situational Awareness; Confusion
ATC Issue All Types; Conflict Airborne Conflict; Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification
Procedure; Human Factors; Airspace Structure; Chart Or Publication; Company Policy
Our TCAS was MELed. CPDLC (Controller Pilot DataLink Communication) clearance was to climb via a SID. 19000 was the top altitude. We had a 9000 foot hold down programmed in the MCP. LNAV was armed. Tower cleared us to 'Line up and wait; report the departing Embraer in sight.' After takeoff; upwind in the climb; Tower said 'Don't turn inside the Embraer; contact Departure.' I'm thinking we are on a climb via clearance. Lateral and vertical path is locked in. The aircraft is about to turn; and it's going to turn inside the Embraer contrary to the Controller's direction. It seems to me if he wants us to do something different than the SID because of a traffic conflict; he needs to assign us a heading and/or altitude and officially relieve us from the Climb Via clearance. We decided to stay on SID based on our official clearance. I contacted Departure and stated; '4300 climbing via the SHEAD 1.' Meanwhile; I had the Embraer in sight and our courses were converging. I can't remember exactly how Departure Control replied; but essentially it was that the Embraer traffic is 'diverging' and to maintain 6000 feet'. We were converging and if the TCAS was operable; it would at least be giving us a TA alert if not an RA.I am not sure exactly what happened with ATC in this situation. I don't know what departure the Embraer was on and how it should have been appropriately handled with our departure. It just seemed the conflict was handled last-minute and not appropriately.
B737 First Officer reported receiving conflicting clearances from ATC; which resulted in confliction with other departing traffic.