I ran mine thru an antenna tube an then wrappend it around the boom. It worked fine that way as long and the radio can read it it should be fine. If you did a radio check and it worked fine than that should not be the problem. You kinda have me stumped, the only thing I could think of would be you don't have enough voltage going thru the radio or a bad spot in the antenna. You might run a check on the wires and make sure no bad spots and maybe replace the radio batteries and see if you have a bad battery. Thats the only things I can think of that would do what you are saying. It really sounds like it is not reading the radio correctly. Check the crystals as well and make sure they are in tight, you might even pull them out and reinstall them to make sure it did not knock it lose on impact. Sorry I cant be more help. Mike