On Saturday, June 29, 2013 9:24:31 AM UTC-5, 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







Whatever the 'trons can do to mess with you, they will do it.







I've found problems with bare metal connections that SHOULD be conducting



because they're touching but do not conduct because of tarnish, oxidation,



dirt, etc. If all else fails, loosen every connection, clean the



metal-to-metal surfaces, spritz them with a material like Crommelin Red or



Caig De-Oxit (name depends on how old you are!) and reassemble.







The tarnish lesson was relearned yesterday when I made up a 10m choke coil



from RG-58 and a pair of PL-259's. The center pins did not have DC



continuity until AFTER I gently scraped both of them with a knife-edge.







It never ends.







73,



"Sal"



(KD6VKW)



Hi Sal, very good info. Yes, I will test the connections inside the T mach block. Apparently, the M2 antennas with this T match has a lot of problems with poor connections due to using dissimilar metals. I have some chemical used in sal****er marine electrical environment called "Corrosion Block". Once, I have cleaned the connections, I will apply the corrosion block. Hopefully, that will keep it going for a few years. I did notice that it looks like M2 has gone to a different type of match. Possibly, due to the problems with the T match.

Thanks for your response & 73, Randy, w5kcm

Just to wrap up this topic in case someone needs this info in the future.
Located a ham selling a T match unit for a 6M5X on QTH.com. Emailed him and he
responded with the 6M5X T match rod lengths. Measured from the aluminum block to
the end of the rod, 11 7/16 inches. As suspected the ones I had were too long.
Cut them and did more testing of the T match and balun. All else checked good.
Cleaned up the antenna and straightened bent elements etc. It is up and
operating well. The SWR is pretty close to the specifications. Comparing it to
my old retired 4 element Comet beam it is much better. Thanks to all the
responders and 73, Randy, w5kcm. Hope to catch you on 6 meters.