Better FM reception in basement than upstairs?

I've noticed this for a while. I use the basic T-shape antennas in 3 systems. All 3 face different directions. I thought higher up would mean better reception. The 2 upstairs do work most of the time but at some point there is fading.

IIRC Ted Nugent is originally from Redford (Twp?). Anyhoo being soo close to Day Twah what you're experiencing may be random peaks and nulls as signals reflected off house wiring, heating ducts, copper pipe, etc. create unusual patterns of reception throughout your house.

My secret underground lair is, well, underground. My upstairs antenna is no better than using a coat hanger on the tuner below ground, in fact it's slightly worse. In my case, the reason is simple. I used small diameter lossy coax because it was easier to route. Turns out anything gained by the upstairs antenna is lost in the cable, plus a slight bit more to emphasize what an idiot I am. At some point I need to run some decent cable. For now, I use a wire in the basement.

brian222 said:

I've noticed this for a while. I use the basic T-shape antennas in 3 systems. All 3 face different directions. I thought higher up would mean better reception. The 2 upstairs do work most of the time but at some point there is fading.

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Higher is generally better because VHF reception is usually line-of-sight, and objects between your antenna and the transmitter can interfere with the signal. Indoor antennas, no matter how high, can be affected by house wiring, metal roofs, even metal furniture, so higher is better may not hold true.

Also remember that your T antennas are directional, usually giving the best reception broadside to the transmitter.

I noticed something similar.

I was listening to my new to me Luxman R115 in the basement of my row home where I got full signal strength on the meters.

Upon moving it upstairs into my living room set up with the same wire dipole antenna, I got one bar less on the meter.

The Yamaha receiver that was replaced with the Luxman in the living room was moved to the basement in my work room.

I had near full strength with the Yamaha and a rabbit ear antenna upstairs. In the basement (albeit opposite end of the house and closer to a window) I get full signal.

I noticed this way back in the 1960s in San Francisco, albeit with a TV set and radio. The stations transmitted from San Bruno were noticeably stronger and cleaner if the set was sitting near the distribution panel or the water pipes. A friend's father, who was a TV serviceman, said pipes and wiring above can act like a huge antenna. Interestingly, this didn't work for me when I lived up near Diamond Heights...there I had to position things so they were nearest the south-east corner of the house. Once Sutro Tower was built, the effect became less noticeable, since the transmitter had good coverage of most of the city.