On Monday, June 24, 2013 8:07:01 AM UTC-5, Paul Drahn wrote:
On 6/23/2013 6:22 PM, w5kcm wrote:

Hello to the group. Recently at a local hamfest I noticed a pile of aluminum

next to a guys truck. Asking about it, he explained it was a 5 element 6 meter

beam that he thought is an M2.He went on to tell me that he had used it for

several years and that it had high SWR and he used it with a tuner of some type.

Otherwise it worked very well. We worked out a deal and I am now the owner of

this antenna. It needs some cleaning up. From some research that I found a pdf

file from M2, it looks to be a 6M5X model. My question is why would the SWR be

high? The T match and coax balun all look to be good. The only thing I can see

is that the T match rods look to be long. They are 14 3/8 " each side of the

block. This looks longer than the pictorial in the pdf file from M2. They do not

give a length for this rod. I found some info that M2 offered an upgrade kit for

the 6M5, could this possibly be a partially upgraded 6M5? The boom and element

lengths all match the 6M5X. Would anyone have the T match rod length for the

6M5X?

Thanks and 73, Randy, w5kcm

I bought a M2 2 meter antenna from a friend. Also said it had a high

SWR, but also said when another friend assembled and installed it for

him, something went "pop" as he was trying to get the two parts of the

driven element aligned. They can't be, but he tried.



I could not get one of the coax balun connectors off, and the female

half would turn if I tried too hard. I had to fabricate a very thin

wrench to hold the female part while I wrenched to male off. Very tight.



I removed the cover of the aluminum block that connects the balun and

the matching rods and cleaned out some of the silicon material. There

was the SWR problem. When the coax fitting had been torqued too much,

the female part had turned and broken the tiny wire connection to the

matching rod.



I managed to get the wire soldered back to the end of the connector and

the SWR was ok. I refilled the block with electronic grade RTV and all

is fine.



Bet that is where your problem is, also. If you can remove the balun and

see if there is continuity between the connector center and the matching

rod.



Good luck.



Paul, KD7HB

HI Paul, very good info. I had opened the little plug in the T Match block and looked around in there and it looks good but from what your saying, I need to check this carefully. I will go back in there and make sure the connections are good. I have checked the RG6 coax balun and it checks good. Thanks for your input.
Randy, w5kcm