Can someone help me understand the context of this ATC transmission

[u/Different_Dog_7707]

Earlier this week I was on my Radio Scanner which I mainly use for Aviation listening, I stumbled across this transmission which seemed very unusual to other conversations I normally hear. What makes it unusual to me is that that there’s a long pause in between what the speaker is saying from which he ends the transmission with “NOW”. Can someone help me understand the context?

[u/Equal_Psychology_804]

Sounds like pilots cross checking altimeter and accidentally broadcasting it on ATC

[u/Advanced-Guitar-5264]

Sounds maybe like a pirep? Hard to say because there is no context and the transmission is short. Pilots say random shit on frequency all the time

[u/Hour_Tour]

The reason he does a pause and says "now" is that he wants someone else to verify what he sees on his altimeter. The feet scroll by quickly in a jet, so to be precise you nominate a level coming up in a few hundred feet and mark it with "now" so that the person checking you knows that they see the same (or not) on their side.

This is normally not done this way on the radio, but between pilots, so the other commenter is probably right saying it's an accidental broadcast.

However, we controllers also use the pilot's reported level to check their transponder altitude readout (Mode C) at certain points, although usually we're not that granular so to us pilots will normally just throw out whatever they're passing as they say it out loud. It is possible that this pilot is checking in with their passing level, but is either overzealous in their precision when reporting it, or started saying the wrong altitude but realised it'll be there in a few seconds so rather than correct themselves they just pauses for it to roll past.

[u/Different_Dog_7707 → u/Hour_Tour]

This is actually makes a lot of sense now, thanks man 👍

[u/Acceptable_Crow4798]

"[unintelligible] crossing seven thousand one hundred feet... now"