TCASII OF OTHER ACFT HELPS SAVE THE DAY BY DIRECTING ACFT TO TAKE EVASIVE ACTION ON CONVERGING COURSES.

Narrative

VHF COMS HAD BEEN POOR FOR ABOUT 30 MINS; MOSTLY BECAUSE OF TSTMS IN ARKANSAS AND MISSOURI; BUT WE HAD BEEN ABLE TO TALK TO ARTCC WELL ENOUGH TO GET A VECTOR TO DDY; AND ATC REQUESTED THAT WE CLB TO FL330 AT ABOUT THE SGF VOR. FOR 5 MINS OR SO PRIOR TO THE INCIDENT; OUR FREQ WAS BASICALLY UNREADABLE DUE TO A PROBABLE STUCK MIKE; IT WAS NOT OUR XMITTER CAUSING THIS. AS SOON AS THE STUCK MIKE PROB WAS CORRECTED; WE RECEIVED A CALL FROM ZKC TO TURN R 30 DEGS FOR TFC; WHICH WE DID. WITHIN SECONDS; WE RECEIVED A SELCAL FROM ACR Z; WHO TOLD US TO CONTACT ZKC ON A NEW FREQ; THAT THERE WAS A TFC CONFLICT; AND ZKC COULD NOT COMMUNICATE WITH US OR THE OTHER ACFT DUE TO A STUCK MIKE. IT APPEARS THAT AN ACR Y FLT AT THE SAME ALT WAS CONVERGING HEAD ON DURING THE COMS BLACKOUT. THAT CREW ACTED UPON A TCASII WARNING AND CHANGED COURSE TO AVOID A COLLISION. I AM NOT SURE HOW CLOSE WE CAME; BUT AFTER DISCUSSING IT WITH ZKC; I DO NOT BELIEVE WE CAME CLOSE ENOUGH TO FILE AN FAA NEAR MISS RPT. AS FAR AS I KNOW; NO ONE IN THE AIR OR THE GND MADE AN ERROR. THE SYS TEMPORARILY FAILED US; AND I AM THANKFUL THAT ACR Y HAD AN OPERATING TCASII BECAUSE IT SAVED US ALL A LOT OF TROUBLE; TO PUT IT MILDLY. PERHAPS UNTIL TCASII IS UNIVERSALLY REQUIRED; WE SHOULD ALL MONITOR GUARD CHANNEL (121.5 OR 243.0) AS A BACKUP; AS THE MIL CURRENTLY DOES. I HOPE IT WORKS BETTER IN THE CIVIL COMMUNITY THAN IT DID WHILE I WAS IN THE MIL; HOWEVER.