If you experience annoying signal dropouts or interference when listening to your car radio, chances are that this is caused by something that you cannot actually do anything about.

Depending on whether you’re trying to tune into your favorite talk show on AM or listen to music on FM, everything from tall buildings to solar flares can negatively impact your listening experience. And unless you have a lot of clout with your local zoning board or you’ve figured out how to control the sun with the power of your mind, most of these issues fall firmly on the side of “there’s nothing you can do about it.”

However, if reception problems persist, there is probably a fault in the equipment. Usually, such faults are easily resolved.

There are many ways a manual antenna mast can be pushed in, such as if a car wash attendant forgets to retract it, or if a large bird decides to sit on it. Whatever the case, if you have a retractable mast and your reception has been poor lately, it’s definitely worth checking first.