Higher is better?

[radiopro52]

I've always heard that the higher you put an antenna, the better. Well, I think in some cases this is not true. In fact, I know it's not true sometimes. I just raised my scanner antenna almost two feet (I know it's not much but, still) and the signals actually come in weaker than they did before. I have to lower the antenna for the signals to come in stronger. Anyone have any idea what would cause signals to come in weaker when raising the antenna?

 

[N_Jay]

What type of antenna, what band, did you try another 2 feet, What got worse,

 

[radiopro52]

The antenna is the DPD LP antenna. I have it on a mast and was previously about 20 feet in the air. Now I raised it about two feet and just about all bands are slighly worse. I'm afraid it will get even worse if I continue to raise it. A few 2 meter ham repeaters I regularly listen to lost a bar on the signal meter, and same for a couple of UHF police stations.

 

[smason]

You may have raised it into a dead spot, or perhaps something happened to the connection when you raised it?

 

[kb2vxa]

Dead spot. It can happen vertically as well as horizontally, on VHF a couple of feet can mean the difference between hearing and not hearing, on UHF even less, on 800MHz even less still. Kick it up a few more feet and I'll bet you it clears up, better yet go as high as you can without getting crazy about it or put it back where it was. The reason is simple, a couple of feet won't make any difference one way or another, you have to stretch things a bit.