Hi Tom,
     On The antenna situation. Some years ago, I had a 5/8 wave mag mount 
that I used in a window sill. It performed well enough. However, After 
hearing about using a counterpoise, I loosened the antenna from the mag 
mount and slid a thin piece of wire between the antenna and the mag mount. I 
made sure it touched the metal part of the bracket that was connected to the 
braid of the coax. The wire was cut to a quarter wave. Suddenly my reports 
were better in all the repeaters, and I started reaching in to machines that 
I could not reach before. I hope this helps.

God bless,
Mark
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-----Original Message----- 
From: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2013 11:32 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: 2-meter Antenna Challenge

Two suggestions:




> Hi, all.
>
> I hope I am not wearing out my welcome back to the list, but I have a
> challenging antenna situation I'm currently facing in the new faculty
> office
> I will be occupying starting this Spring semester.
>
> I currently have an old Kenwood TMV7A in the office, with which I have
> always had at least some luck, in terms of getting into our local 2-meter
> repeater. The repeater is about 15 miles from the University.
>
> However, in my new office, I am finding that the small mag-mount antenna I
> have always  used simply does not allow me to reach the repeater
> consistently.  Currently, I have the magmount sitting on a small metal
> bracket on the window sill in the office.  It is right next to the window,
> so I would think that should help.  However, I do not have much of a
> ground
> plain for the magmount.  I also think there is some de-sensing going on
> with
> the steel of the office building, and with other surrounding computer
> equipment in the office complex.
>
> I do have a filing cabinet on the other side of the office that I could
> use
> as a ground plane, but the top of the filing cabinet is too high, and
> there
> is not enough space between it and the office ceiling  to accommodate the
> magmount antenna.
>
> This obviously is a very challenging situation, and I also have to be at
> least somewhat concerned with appearance, in terms of not having an
> ugly-looking antenna that might draw more attention to what I am trying to
> do than I might want.
>
> Do any of you have any suggestions as to how to help the mag-mount perform
> better in this situation?
>
> Or, might I be better off considering another type of antenna, such as a
> J-pole of some sort.
>
> I would appreciate any thoughts.
>
> Tom Behler: KB8TYJ
>
>