On Thu, 11 Feb 2010 07:35:19 -0800 (PST), phaedrus
wrote:

I believe antennas should be way up in the air
away from other stuff.

You are way up in the air. The floor is merely an illusion of being
on the ground.

Stick a wire under your carpet just seems like
taking a bath with your clothes on; there's something not right about
it!

Understandable, but it confuses the issue that you are already up in
the air. Rather, it is like taking a very high antenna, and draping a
carpet over it and nailing a floor under it. The building composition
will certainly have an effect. However, if you have heard of
people running a wire around the edge of their living
rooms under the carpet and working DX with 10W
then it would seem reasonable that their building composition is only
marginally affecting their antenna high in the air.

The only unknown that remains is how much YOUR building composition
will impact the same loop under a carpet. This is something that only
you can investigate. It couldn't take much effort to lay out the
antenna and listen to how much you can hear. That would go a great
distance in answering this unknown.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC