Step 1: Picture Bartter syndrome as a built-in loop diuretic, then locate where loop diuretics act.
Step 2: Loop diuretics block the Na-K-2Cl cotransporter in the thick ascending limb, and Bartter syndrome is caused by inherited loss of function of that same transporter or the associated potassium and chloride channels. The result is salt wasting and an inability to concentrate the urine.
Step 3: A DCT defect points instead to Gitelman syndrome, and the PCT is the wrong site, so the lesion in Bartter syndrome is in the thick ascending limb of the loop of Henle.
\[\boxed{\text{Defect in thick ascending limb of loop of Henle}}\]