[Elecraft] K2 & Antenna Performance Question

[Paul Clay]

Good afternoon group.  I just finished my K2 a 
while back and after tuning it up on a dummy 
load, was preparing to hook it up to my multiband 
trap dipole and try to make a few contacts.

What noticed when I hook the K2 up to the RG58U 
coax feedline is that, not only does the 
atmospheric noise go way down, but so does the 
strength of signals, as compared to what I can 
here when I just have a bare wire attached to the 
K2.  If I connect just the center conductor of 
the coax feedline to the K2, it receives as with 
the bare wire; but once I thread on the part of 
the connector connected to the coax shield, the 
received signals go way, way down.

The degredation in signal strenght (again, 
compared to the bare wire antenna) doesn't go 
away if insert my antenna tuner into the feedline 
circuit.

Any idea what's up?  I can't find a short in the 
antenna, and, running the K2 into my dummy load, 
it puts out RF just fine.  Also, FWIW, when 
connected to the K2 thru my antenna tuner, the 
antenna exhibits an acceptable SWR (about1.5:1).

Thanks in advance!

- Paul, N6LQ (itching to make his first K2 
contact)