Hello,

Not an antenna expert, so thought I'd post my questions here, for all you
theorists.
Would appreciate any thoughts on the following, as it really confuses me.

Have a new handheld scanner; GRE 500 model.
Has a rubber duckie for its antenna, which is pretty typical for these kind
of scanners, of course.

Tried listening to an airport control tower (118.5 MHz AM), about 5 miles
from the house.

Here's what I found playing around.

When the unit is held normally, that is with the antenna vertical, the
airport comms from the tower were really poor.
Lots of static and noise.

But, much better when held horizontally.
a. Any idea why ?

I would have thought that their antennas would be polarized vertically
to communicate with planes.

b. any idea how their tower antennas are likely polarized (if at all) ?

c. and this one really confuses me.

The best reception, by far, is if I point the antenna vertically, but
DOWNWARD ! Big difference from vertically up.

Wouldn't vertically up, and vertically down be identical and symmetrically
the same re polarization, reception, etc. ?

Thanks,
Bob