Noticed recently that I had to crank the squelch on my radio much higher. Radio is a panel-mounted Icom IC-A5.

Flown for years at the previous squelch setting (8, if I remember correctly). Had a lot of squelch breaking for no reason on the last flight. Today it was continuous, and didn't go away until I cranked it up to 14 (16 is max).

Any idea why this would happen suddenly? The noise doesn't seem to be related to the ignition unless there's a common failure point between the two mags; there's no change with a mag check.

The antenna is a whip mounted below a wooden panel, with a 12x18" sheet of aluminum foil as a grounding plane. It's about a six-foot coax run to the radio.

Only thing that comes to mind, maybe, is the sheld side of the coax got somehow compromised.

Any other ideas?

Ron Wanttaja