  Masses and especially coupling constants of the vector meson nonet are
determined in the large-N_c limit, but beyond the chiral limit taking into
account terms up to quadratic order in the Goldstone boson masses. With two
input parameters five coupling constants for hadronic and dilepton decays are
determined which agree very well with the experimental results. The obtained
parameters are also used to calculate the pion and kaon decay constant in the
large-N_c limit. A consistent picture is only obtained, if the correct
assignment of the N_c-dependence of the electromagnetic charges of the quarks
is taken into account.
