One is ground.
At any rate, larger antenna (space) = good.
I originally thought it was a ground too. If you look at the wire, it has a central conducting wire surrounded by an insulating dielectric material surrounded by a wire shield a la coax. If you look on the front of the case, the shielding wire is soldered at one point to provide ground and the central wire soldered elsewhere on thingamajig. If you look at how it is connected to the circuit board, it is exactly the same as the antenna on the back. It is too complex to be a simple ground. Halsey was right, it is an antenna also.