And Tom could have a sign in his old office:  "Tom's radio room - 
stay the hell out"!!
Pat, K9JAUAt 11:14 PM 8/17/2013, you wrote:
>Well, Tom, obviously it's time to drill a hole in the ceiling above the
>filing cabinet to give your antenna some breathing space.  You should also
>think about adding an extension to make the antenna come out of the roof
>into the outdoors where it can do some good.
>
>For another possibility, consider running some coax back to your old office
>so you could keep the antenna where it was working well.  Come to think of
>it, leave the radio and the antenna in the old office and set up a microwave
>link to your new office.  This has the added advantage of making it look
>like the new occupant of your old office is the ham radio operator.  Of
>course, that house of cards falls apart pretty quickly if anyone figures out
>who set up the microwave link.
>
>Steve
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Tom Behler" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Saturday, August 17, 2013 11:05
>Subject: 2-meter Antenna Challenge
>
>
> > 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
> >