for an A-99 to work good they do need to be above the house. like most antennas, higher the better.
you can still get one to work nearly standing up from the ground but you will likely receive a lot of ground noise, lots of static from everything electrical.
the A-99 might not be too hard to hide although it is nearly 18 foot tall. yes, the antenna can be painted. some people take them down every year and coat them with polyurethane to keep the fiberglass from being too splintered.
the B-100 antenna has had some bad reviews. i have never owned one. all kinds of alternatives to an antenna if you really want to experiment. even two mobile antennas will work if they are set up similar to a dipole.
checking that coax is really what you need to do first. if you don't have a volt meter of some kind that can check for continuity you can always find other ways to check it. take the coax ends and check with a speaker output from small radio is one idea or even using your flash light bulb and the battery.
the speaker wire and radio should work. two wires, speaker positive and negative. one to the lead (center of coax) and other to the ground (outside connector). same on other end, wire to a speaker. if the coax is either shorted, the end is broken inside or if the ground (shield) is not making contact then the speaker wire test will let you know. the speaker will have no sound if shorted or broken connection.
