# What's going on with my radio, or, the Human Antenna

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-going-on-with-my-radio-or-the-human-antenna/505899>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 10, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-going-on-with-my-radio-or-the-human-antenna/505899 "2009-08-10T01:22:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-going-on-with-my-radio-or-the-human-antenna/505899/1 "2009-08-10T01:22:00Z")

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I have a clock radio on my bedside table. For the past three weeks or so, a weird thing has been happening with it.

Radio goes off at appointed time and I lie in bed listening happily until it’s time to get out of bed. I swing my legs around to sit on the edge of the bed. Radio is broadcasting my station of choice just fine.

Then I stand up, and an obnoxious noisy station starts bleeding in. (When I stand up, I’m not directly in front of the radio.) I take the couple of steps to the bedroom door. As soon as I’m past the radio, it reverts to its previous clear broadcast of the station of my choice.

I step into the hall and turn left. I take a step or two toward the bathroom, and the obnoxious station bleeds back in and then back out as I continue down the hall.

What is causing this?!? Talk geeky to me.

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**Author:** ![tofergregg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tofergregg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tofergregg)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-going-on-with-my-radio-or-the-human-antenna/505899/2 "2009-08-10T06:23:22Z")

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The same thing happens to me, and it’s annoying. There is a sweet spot on my bed that enables clear reception, but moving too far from that spot allows bleed-in. Moving around the room leads to other sweet spots, as you also have experienced. Check here for a good discussion about this: [Human (And Dog) Antenna - radio reception physics | Ask MetaFilter](http://ask.metafilter.com/92343/Human-And-Dog-Antenna)

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**Author:** ![J\_Cubed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)\
**Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-going-on-with-my-radio-or-the-human-antenna/505899/3 "2009-08-10T06:37:57Z")

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This happens to me at my current apartment (although it didn’t with the same radio in other places). I mostly solved it by wrapping the little rubber coated antenna around a bar of my metal bed frame.