For some reason recently every time I press my PTT key (left ctrl) whether or not FS Copilot or FSInn us running I get an annoying little graphic strip appear on the screen showing my Comm frequencies and saying something about not being connected. Anyone know how to get rid of it? It's only appeared recently.

Sounds like your FSX is loading in one of the Vatsim Software dlls, by default, everytime you run FSX.Check your fsx's "dll.xml"