Why is it that radios and TVs get better reception when someone is touching the antenna?
The probability that a "human body antenna" receives the same inphase signal as a radio or TV does is almost zero. If many people have similar experience, then there must be a reason other than that..... Any thoughts?
-- Harry Lin
I don't think they necessarily do... rather, if reception is poor, and if someone touches the antenna and it improves, they remember it. If it doesn't improve or actually gets worse, they tend not to remember. :-) (Kind of like "psychic" TV shows... people remember the "hits" and forget all the misses...)
Well, the body does act like an antenna, but like Harry Lin said, it's hit and miss.
What it is is that the antenna is not exactly tuned to the signal's frequency, and your body changes the resonance of the antenna. I have a little random-wire UHF antenna, which when I adjust it, I have to position it so that I get a really crappy signal, then when I go back to the couch, it cleans right up! :-)
Cheers! Rich
On a sunny day (23 Feb 2007 18:04:06 -0800) it happened "Harry" wrote in :
Why? In case of LW / MW radio wavelength is usually much longer then the human body. And it indeed works.
In case of TV or FM I have not noticed the effect very much. There is also the attenuation / resistance in the arm, so maybe the first
10cm does the most ;-)
The effect only works well with a marginal signal. It maybe that your capacitance to ground alters the impedance of the antenna, or. that you are just increasing the aperture. The human body (being a bag of mostly water and fat) is a lossy conductor.
all said and done contact makes a somewhat larger antenna, with different pattern and resonances.
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