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
>