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JB, That ground seems to be a like a vertical antenna (like a car whip) terminated to a high-impedance ground plane at the bottom. Not surprised it works either.
Maybe it's tuned just right for what you're receiving.
I had a Radio Scrap crystal set kit 40 years ago. IIRC, it used a tunable coil, 1N64 diode, resistor and earphone. The ground was connected to a plate screw on a nearby receptacle and the antenna was 20 ft of 22 ga stranded insulated wire. It got all three local stations (10 miles - 1/5 kW)almost simultaneously, you could sort of tune it so one would be louder that the other 2.
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