This is a common problem and may be voodoo science, but I am pretty convinced it works. I have a metal mailbox about 50' from the nearest Aeotec Range Extender -- and totally bad line of sight through a couple of masonry walls. I am using an EcoLink Door/Window contact sensor for a trigger. No way to mount outside the mailbox. Works pretty well but sometimes misses a closure message and HE thinks it is open. Sometimes mail would arrive with no communication back so I couldn't trust it. I was considering throwing more money and time at it, when I discovered an Instructables article on Z-Wave Antenna. He was showing measured results on an 8" piece of wire (5/8 wave) that was pretty impressive. I taped a piece on top of the Ecolink case, parallel and as close as possible to the internal antenna as described in the article. Then I figured if a little is good, more is better, and too much is just right --- so I taped another antenna to the left face of my Aeotec extender and a second one on the right side (because I didn't take it apart to see where the antenna was). I was blown away when this thing started triggering much faster and hasn't missed a comm since! YMMV but I hope this helps someone. 
https://www.instructables.com/id/Z-Wave-Antenna/
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Nice find! THIS is why we tinker.
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You know, based on my experience with antennas, this doesn't really make much sense, but im willing to believe in FM, so assuming a healthy dose of magic, I can accept that it works.
I'd guess you essentially created some passive repeaters, but i'm not really sure how that would work....
S.
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I agree, it sounded crazy, but his signal strength measurements in different fractional wavelengths seemed valid and showed a 4x improvement. I would like to know how it worked. I figured the 5/8 wave wire had some signal induced into it that made the field appear stronger to the nearby 1/4 wave device antenna. Sometimes my radio gets stronger when my hand is close to the antenna -- FM (or AM) -- it's all magic! 
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