Antenna mystery

[desrudx]

Just got home after 2 months being away to find neighbour building oversized garage right in front of my near-ground level vhf-uhf-fm combo antenna, I thought there would be a noticeable loss of signal but it`s more like there is no more antenna, even Ottawa FMs can`t get through!
So I quickly put together a simple dipole and started testing to find another spot to reinstall the antenna where it wouldn`t be so bad...found a slightly higher spot where I have good clearance of the offending building, went in the house, and to my amazement, not only is everything coming in again, but what I find truly strange, is that my crude dipole seems to pick up everything much better, even MS, in fact just IDed WUNC-2 minutes ago. I`m finding this very odd, either my old combo antenna is a piece of junk, broken, or ?

[Scott-OKC]

Your crude dipole may not be picking up any better. May just be coincidence that the Es with WUNC was booming in to Quebec at the time no matter what antenna you had connected. If in fact you determine that with normal ground wave signals it is picking up better, I would check connections and cabling.
Regards, Scott

[John Wilke K9RZZ]

That may be an indication that your old antenna needs some cleaning up.

Better yet, get a new antenna and put it on a tower that DWARFS your neighbor's garage!! :laughing::laughing::laughing:

[desrudx]

Well the only way to find out was to move the antenna itself, which I did, and it is picking up a little better than the dipole, but not a whole lot...and yes it is being held up with duct tape but still...
thanks for the advice...great idea...maybe someday...when I retire...

[desrudx]

And now I have been noticing that reception improves drastically, especially on ch4, whenever it rains and the antenna gets a soaking. Is that an indication of anything?