LS-4 Transponder antenna location?

I'm installing a class C transponder in my LS-4, and I'd like to hear
from anyone who's done a similar installation with regard to a few
questions about antenna location. Since the fusilage is not carbon
fiber I intend to locate the antenna internally, and the easiest
placement seems to be way forward in the nose 10 inches or so beyond
the rudder pedals. There's room to attach the antenna and its
reflector plate against an internal panel located on the roof of the
nose with the coax cable led beneath the floorboards back to the
transponder mounted on the instrument panel. The antenna would point
downward from the roof of the nose. It looks like a clean, easy
installation.

Questions:

1) During transmit, the antenna puts out about 175 watts of RF. Is it
going to toast my tootsies, or worse still, give me a bad case of
toenail cancer, or is the frequency such that my feet have nothing to
worry about?

2) There's some metal tubing structure attached to the floorboard
beneath the antenna, probably annodized aluminum, that supports the
rudder pedals and the heel-actuated wheel brake. Will that interfere
with the antenna output?

I'd be grateful for advice. I know from zilch about radios.