yes, possibly the distance is a problem. Seems like the apartment has just too much metal and other stuff around it and the signal is blocked. Like I mentioned in your other post, you didn't say anything about which Kenwood you are trying to use. The pager is something we can't do a thing about - 20 miles in an apartment building, even on vhf hi is going to be iffy at best. I used to have pagers all the time, and in most cases, there's no way to easily get an antenna on it (in my case, fortunately...). You need to purchase (or have your company) recommend a common carrier that's closer to you.
20 miles on vhf hi should be doable; it's almost certain you will need some sort of ext antenna, not a scanner. Since most apartments don't allow external antennas of any kind, this is going to be a problem. You will need to find a sweet spot where the signal does come in (all apartments have them, you just need to hunt for it). A handheld scanner (if you can borrow one from someone) will make this fairly simple. Perhaps a mag mount on the fridge, or if you are lucky enough to have some iron railing on a small balcony. Many 2 meter (ham) mobile antennas, such as those by Diamond, are not very tall and have a small amount of gain on VHF hi, which might help. They're usually broadbanded enough that 155 mhz reception should be a snap.
73s Mike
