  We present an analysis of new spectroscopic observations of the bright Be
star kappa Dra obtained at the Ondrejov observatory during 1992 - 2003 and UBV
photometric observations secured at several observatories. The fundamental
stellar parameters have been obtained from a comparison with a grid of NLTE
model atmospheres. The best fit was found for Teff=14000K, log g = 3.5, and v
sin i = 170km/s. These values together with a Hipparcos parallax lead to a
stellar mass M=4.8+-0.8 M_solar and radius R=6.4+-0.5 R_solar. Long-term
variations of kappa Dra were analysed using measurements of equivalent widths,
central intensities, peak intensities of emission lines and emission peak
velocity differences for H-alpha, H-beta, H-gamma, H-delta, and some helium,
silicon, and iron lines. It turned out that the previously reported period of
23 years in the variation of the emission strength is probably a cyclic, not a
strictly periodic phenomenon. An attempt to find out a period from all
available records of the H-beta emission strength led to a value of 8044+-167
days (22.0 years) but the phase plots show that each cycle has a different
shape and length. For the moment, the nature and origin of the disk around
kappa Dra still remains unknown. From the comparison of the electronic spectra
obtained at different phases of the long-term cycle and synthetic spectra it
appears that there are no detectable changes in the photospheric part of the
Balmer lines related to variations in the Balmer emission strength which could
be attributed to an extended photosphere corresponding to inner parts of the
disk, optically thick in continuum.
