I installed a giant antenna on my mesh radio

I've posted in the past about building mesh radios, a very cheap little radio electronics project which I highly recommend as a kind of dumbass toy (though you could get super serious about it, prepper style, if you desired). I recently installed a nearly three-foot fiberglass antenna on one of my mesh radios, kind of as a bit. It has certainly increased the number of signals I'm receiving... though, crucially, it has not improved my ability to transmit and be heard. I won't post a picture of the antenna because I do not want to reveal its location! Ha, ha, ha! I used a 32-inch Rokland antenna compatible with the frequencies Meshtastic operates on in the US (915 MHz). I mounted it just inside a window in a location on top of a hill. Each week, I'm now receiving data about 150 more nodes than I was before installing this antenna. That's a lot! The furthest-away node I've hit recently is near Carmel, CA, 260 miles and three "hops" away from my location in Los Angeles. I have no idea how…