Bonanza 35
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 30; Flight Crew Total 2200; Flight Crew Type 1000
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Aircraft; ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings
Took off from FDK. Flight was to go from FDK to ANP; ANP is in the SFRA. SFRA flight plan was filed properly. Have been flying the SFRA for a very long time. Potomac controllers are having a terrible time of receiving transponder signals (even though we are seeing reply lights on our transponders) and they are also having a difficult time hearing our comms in the area of the SFRA boundary that is near FDK through the EMI VOR. This sets up a bad situation of planes being forced to fly circles or racetrack patterns outside the SFRA until the controllers hear us and see us on their scopes. We were trying to get contact lower and kept going higher until comm and transponder could be barely usable by the controllers.Our Beechcraft has fairly modern avionics in it; Garmin 430; King 76C; etc. All boxes test out perfectly and work elsewhere in the IFR system fine. The Potomac communication and transponder arrangement is poor at best; in my opinion.We did not have any SFRA or other regulation problems. I just want to tell someone that this is not a good or safe situation. In heavy traffic situations; you might have a number of planes orbiting outside of the KFDK area and the SFRA; this is not a large flying area for multiple planes to be orbiting in an uncontrolled area.Please have the FAA fix the transponder problem and the communication problem for flight into the SFRA before a midair occurs.
The reporter is acquainted with many other pilots who have experienced the same difficulties; some with new aircraft and or equipment. He also believes that the problems with transponder reception in this area have gotten worse over the last couple of years.
BE35 pilot reports difficulty obtaining clearance to enter the DCA SFRA from the north due to the inability of ATC to detect his transponder and those of many other pilots below the Class B floor of 3000 feet.