# Why Would Standing In One Spot Affect Radio Reception?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-standing-in-one-spot-affect-radio-reception/125042>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 22, 2002, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-standing-in-one-spot-affect-radio-reception/125042 "2002-08-22T05:49:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-standing-in-one-spot-affect-radio-reception/125042/1 "2002-08-22T05:49:24Z")

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I noticed this phenomenon once when I was still in high school. I was listening to the radio and there was a real bad storm brewing outside. So the reception wasn’t too good. And yet, just by chance, I noticed when I stood in one particular spot in the room, the radio reception improved! Was I just imagining it? Or was it just coincidence? I did it a couple times to verify.

So what was it?

😃

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**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-standing-in-one-spot-affect-radio-reception/125042/2 "2002-08-22T05:51:36Z")

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P.S. Sorry about the blank post. But I submitted it the right way and yet my text didn’t appear until I readded it just now. (Talk about strange phenomenon.)

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**Author:** ![JS\_Princeton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@JS\_Princeton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JS_Princeton)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-standing-in-one-spot-affect-radio-reception/125042/3 "2002-08-22T06:33:37Z")

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Jim B… basically the human body makes a pretty good antenna. If you stand in the right place you can actually amplify the signal.

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**Author:** ![JS\_Princeton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@JS\_Princeton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JS_Princeton)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-standing-in-one-spot-affect-radio-reception/125042/4 "2002-08-22T06:39:03Z")

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Jim B… basically the human body makes a pretty good antenna. If you stand in the right place you can actually amplify the signal.

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**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\
**Post date:** [August 22, 2002, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-standing-in-one-spot-affect-radio-reception/125042/5 "2002-08-22T14:20:22Z")

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Have you ever noticed that when you’re driving slowly in your car, such as approaching the last few feet of a red light, that the reception fades in and out? The FM radio waves bounce off of nearby buildings and bridges, creating a pattern of peaks and valleys in the strength of the signal. It’s called multipath distortion. If you stop in a low point, you can usually improve it by moving by half a wavelength, which in the case of FM radio would be about 5 feet.