RE: correct Antenna orientation
I emailed the link to this thread to one of our microwave eng. here at work. He replied thanking me for the laugh and to remind me that the break room complete with 2 microwave ovens is located in the same building where we test all our antennas.
With that said, I'm going to let this one die before anyone else gets his feelings hurt, I have given solid advise to the OP and his range issue and that was my intent.