Narrative:

On climb out while in moderate rain and heavy cloud; VHF radio number one and two produced constant heavy static that blocked radio transmissions from ATC. They received broken and scratchy transmissions from us and we only occasionally caught very broken and mostly unreadable transmissions from ATC. This condition lasted for between 5 and 10 minutes until we flew out of the rain. I; ACARS our situation to operations and maintenance control. We followed our pre-received clearance to our final cruising altitude and maintained our established flight plan route. I did not squawk 7600. We were not made aware of any conflicts or issues by ATC before handoff. Our route of flight had us forecasted to be clear of any further rain. I had reviewed the national weather service collaborative convective forecast product (ccfp) prior to departure and it forecasted no anticipated thunderstorm activity for our designation. I felt the situation was manageable and elected to continued on to my destination.my dispatcher via ACARS; was consulted and so advised. I sent maintenance control an early alert message and a logbook entry was made for the radios upon our arrival. I had no further radio problems during the rest of the flight except for one area of some very light static while in cloud at altitude deviating around weather that did not effect ATC radio communications. This is the third time over the years that I have had this type of radio static issues in the A320 that have caused me to go no radio (NORDO). In all cases the static occurred in rain or while in high altitude cloud. On one of those occasions the situation became near critical in the need to deviate away from weather while in a holding pattern so that I could divert to my alternate due to my low fuel state. Not the time to loose your radios! On the other occasions; it has turned out to be static wick issues (not missing but wicks needing replacement). I suspect that this was the issue here as well. I am curious to know if the static wicks are replaced as necessary; or on a time cycle basis? If they are not on a time cycle basis; that may (not) be beneficial because when they go bad; the A320 radio's in cloud or precipitation become mostly unusable. Interestingly enough; I had flown this airplane three days prior in cloud and had no radio problems. My first officer did a post flight on the airplane and all static wicks were in place. The inbound crew into reported no problems and they most likely would have flown through the same moderate (non-thunderstorm) precipitation that we did. I have encountered light static on the A320 radios numerous times that hinder but do not inhibit ATC radio communications. I had been told many; many years ago by one of our airbus maintenance technicians that when the radios start to put out light static in cloud or rain that pilots should write the radios up to get the static wicks looked at. If this is true; that would be worthwhile information to pass on to all pilots as SOP.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An A320 Captain reports about reoccurring heavy static on both VHF radios causing him to lose communications with ATC during climb and when flying through light to moderate rain and clouds.

Narrative: On climb out while in moderate rain and heavy cloud; VHF radio number one and two produced constant heavy static that blocked radio transmissions from ATC. They received broken and scratchy transmissions from us and we only occasionally caught very broken and mostly unreadable transmissions from ATC. This condition lasted for between 5 and 10 minutes until we flew out of the rain. I; ACARS our situation to Operations and Maintenance Control. We followed our pre-received clearance to our final cruising altitude and maintained our established flight plan route. I did not squawk 7600. We were not made aware of any conflicts or issues by ATC before handoff. Our route of flight had us forecasted to be clear of any further rain. I had reviewed the National Weather Service Collaborative Convective Forecast Product (CCFP) prior to departure and it forecasted no anticipated thunderstorm activity for our designation. I felt the situation was manageable and elected to continued on to my destination.My Dispatcher via ACARS; was consulted and so advised. I sent Maintenance Control an early alert message and a Logbook entry was made for the radios upon our arrival. I had no further radio problems during the rest of the flight except for one area of some very light static while in cloud at altitude deviating around weather that did not effect ATC radio communications. This is the third time over the years that I have had this type of radio static issues in the A320 that have caused me to go No Radio (NORDO). In all cases the static occurred in rain or while in high altitude cloud. On one of those occasions the situation became near critical in the need to deviate away from weather while in a holding pattern so that I could divert to my alternate due to my low fuel state. Not the time to loose your radios! On the other occasions; it has turned out to be static wick issues (not missing but wicks needing replacement). I suspect that this was the issue here as well. I am curious to know if the static wicks are replaced as necessary; or on a time cycle basis? If they are not on a time cycle basis; that may (not) be beneficial because when they go bad; the A320 radio's in cloud or precipitation become mostly unusable. Interestingly enough; I had flown this airplane three days prior in cloud and had no radio problems. My First Officer did a post flight on the airplane and all static wicks were in place. The inbound crew into reported no problems and they most likely would have flown through the same moderate (non-thunderstorm) precipitation that we did. I have encountered light static on the A320 radios numerous times that hinder but do not inhibit ATC radio communications. I had been told many; many years ago by one of our Airbus Maintenance Technicians that when the radios start to put out light static in cloud or rain that pilots should write the radios up to get the static wicks looked at. If this is true; that would be worthwhile information to pass on to all Pilots as SOP.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.