[Tinyos-help] Heavy radio packet loss

[David]

Hi again list (I'm making a lot of posts today it seems).

I have 2 Tmote Sky motes, both connected to USB (via extender cables),
on my desk (about 10 cm apart). 1 mote sends packets 10x a second (and
blinks a green LED), the other receives the packets (and blinks a blue
LED).

Terminology for brevity:

Sending mote: A
Receiving mote: B

It looks like B is not receiving most of the packets. It's blue light
blinks erratically, not continuously like A's green LED.

I've found that doing a few things helps:

1) Disconnecting A from USB
2) Putting my hand over (but not touching) A

When I do either of those, then B starts receiving packets perfectly.
Doing the same on B doesn't seem to have any effect.

I've also tried moving A and B further apart (about a meter) but it
doesn't help.

This is not consistent - sometimes B will receive fine, other times it
gets almost no packets. But those tricks above always work.

Any ideas?

David.