[Kenwood] TS-520 Reciever Alignment Questions

[Daniel Seagraves]

I recently got my hands on a TS-520 of relatively unknown history (That
is, I bought it on Ebay), and I'm trying to get the rig on the air. My
"problem" is that the recieve seems very weak to me; I have it sitting
atop my Ten-Tec Omni D, and I tune the same signal on the Omni and the
520, and the 520 will have a very weak reception of the signal. The S
meter does not deflect except on VERY strong signals, such as commercial
broadcast signals in the WWV band. I have the manual for the radio and the
manual suggested I readjust the IF board and realign the reciever. I
readjusted the IF with no problems but it didn't help; Just as a
reference, the internal marker (25KHz position) does not deflect the S
meter at all on any band, and is barely audible above static on 10 meters.

I guess I want to first ask, is this normal for this radio? Is the
calibration oscilator really that weak?

Beyond that, if I really do need to realign the reciever, I have two
issues: The first is, the manual states at the beginning of the procedure
that I am to connect the radio to a 50 ohm dummy load; I do not own a
dummy load. Is this really necessary, or can I just leave the antenna
unplugged? The second issue is that I don't have the "test rod" the manual
says you are to use when adjusting the coils; Can I use something else in
it's place?

Thanks, Daniel / KC9ALV