FLC LEVELED OFF IN TAKING EVASIVE ACTION TO AVOID ANOTHER ACFT AT ASSIGNED ALT WHILE CLBING TO THAT ALT.

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WE WERE VECTORED S DURING IFR DEP WHILE CLBING TO ORIGINAL CLRED ALT OF 8000 FT MSL. IT'S COMMON TO BE VECTORED S BELOW ARR CORRIDOR BEFORE BEING CLRED ON COURSE. CLBING OUT OF 7000 FT WE NOTICED TFC AT OUR 1 O'CLOCK POS WHICH DEP CALLED SHORTLY AFTER. WE LEVELED OFF AT 7600 FT WITH OTHER ACFT (AT 8000 FT) PASSING DIRECTLY OVERHEAD. DEP CTLR WAS ALSO HANDLING ARRS ON A DIFFERENT FREQ. ARR TFC SEEMED BUSY BASED ON CTLR XMISSIONS. I WOULD PREFER TO HEAR TFC AS WELL AS CTLR; INSTEAD OF NOTHING. OUR ACFT WAS NOT TCASII EQUIPPED. INSTALLATION DATES HAVE BEEN SLIPPED. TCASII WOULD HAVE PROVIDED A MUCH EARLIER WARNING OF DEVELOPING CONFLICT AS WE WERE STRUGGLING TO DETERMINE OTHER ACFT'S ALT IN THE DARK. HAD THE CTLR NOT GIVEN US THAT ACFT'S ALT WE MIGHT HAVE PASSED MUCH CLOSER. HAD IT BEEN IMC WE WOULD HAVE LEVELED OFF AT 8000 FT WITH A MIDAIR COLLISION EXTREMELY LIKELY SAVE THE APPROPRIATE RESPONSE OF THE OTHER CREW TO THEIR TCASII EQUIP. IDEAS: SEEMS DUMB TO ARTIFICIALLY OVERLOAD A CTLR BY GIVING HIM 2 JOBS AT ONCE. WE NEED TCASII IN THE COMMUTERS. IT HAS SAVED ME BEFORE (IN 1 OF OUR 2 EQUIPPED PLANES).