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