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You can
write your own review of the Tennadyne T10 Log Periodic.
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WA4BHK
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Rating: 2/5
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Dec 18, 2007 06:04
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Not strong enough to withstand moderate winds
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I've had this antenna up for 6 years on a 72 foot tower. Until 6 months ago, I had no problems with the antenna other than some boom sag due to the antenna not having any type of center boom support assembly. About six months ago during some moderate winds, one of the mid boom elements broke off approximately 12 inches out from the boom. This past Sunday, we had 30 mph winds with a passing cold front and another mid boom element broke off 6 inches out from the boom. In my opinion, some of the elements of this antenna are not strong enough to withstand moderate much less strong winds. Seems like the antenna should last more than six years.
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NX7DX
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Rating: 5/5
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Oct 27, 2007 12:04
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nx7dx-nelson. R
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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hi I been using T10 for 6 monts sofar super antenna, no preblemes. rememver is a log peruiodic not a yagy most of the times is operator not reading carefull instrations like ME.OK WORK VERYGOOD AND FLAT SWR ON 10-12--15-17-20-2mt- 6 mt 1.3.1 swr . PS. IF YOU USE A TUNER THIS ANTENNA IS VERRY GOOD ON 40 MT.AND 160 MT BELIVEME IT WORK AS GOOD AS MY 663 FEETS LOOP .ON 160 I GAT A 60 FTS CRANKUP TOWER ANTENNA IS ON TAP AND FEED POINT IS ON ANTENNA NOT ON TAWER OK. I COMPER SIGNAL REPORT WITH STATIONS RUNNING POWER AND I USE 100 WATT AT THE TEST A DIFERENT WAS 59 ON 100 AND 20 EVER 9 ON 1200 WATTS ,COMPER ANTENNA SIGNALS WITH A 4 ELE.36 FT BOOM MONOBAND AN I GOT 1 S UNIT MORE ON 20 MTR. REMEMBER I/m talking abouth T10 ORIGYNAL I SAUME ALL NEW ARE BETER THAN MY T10. GOOD LUCK AND REMEMBER READ INSTRACTIONS THIS ANTENNA IS DIFERENT AND SUPER FENOMENAL . LOOK LOOK .WORK VERY GOOD ON 40/ 160 METER WITH A PALSTAR TUNER 73 AND GOOD LUCK
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W1CTN
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Rating: 4/5
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Aug 30, 2007 10:33
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A good antenna
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have owned my T10 for just over 4 years and it has proven to be a good directional antenna for 20-10 meters. I base my conclusion on what it replaced, a Mosley CL-33, which I feel had the same performance, but no coverage of 12 and 17 meters.
My T10 is at a height of 52' feet and is rotated by a Ham 3 rotor. I feel this rotor is adequate for the job.
I have found that the F/B is at least what Tennadyne publishes in its literature. I have confimed this with stations locally and at over 1500 km away. I feel the gain is the same I had with the Classic 33. ~5 DB.
The SWR is under 1.5 to 1 from 20-10, with the exception of 12 meters, where it hovers around 1.7. It's flat 100 khz under the band. If anyone has a element length change to make it flat in the 12 meter band, drop me an email.
It is a very rugged antenna and has survived 4 winters, all of which have had at least one ice storm associated with the season. Element ice up, bow a little, thaw out and spring back to shape.
Construction of the antenna is pretty good and this makes assembly pretty IP (idiot proof). There are no moving parts, it's a straight forward design with no traps to toast with excessive power or become home to your local spider population, the pre-drilled double boom makes it a no brainer as to the element spacing.
The T10 is a good all around directional antenna, with consistant f/b and gain from 20-10 meters. If you are looking for razor sharp directivity and 4/5 element gain, look elsewhere, this antenna is not for you.
I like it and it makes my home look like an embassy ! Drop me an email if you have any comments or questions.
73
Dave W1CTN
w1ctn@yahoo.com
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N8FR
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 8, 2007 05:19
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This antenna really plays!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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This antenna is a winner. Jeff (WD8DLK) and I put it up at 80feet on Memorial Day. I have used it about 6 hours and worked abouy 30 countries. Most of these contacts were on first or second call.
By the way, it plays very well on 6 meters, both locally and on skip!
SWR was 2:1 highest 6 feet off ground, and is 1.4:1 highest on the tower. No tuning anywhere from 14-54 mHz.
Assembly is rigorous and somewhat subtle. It took me one sunny day. The manual could use some additional explanation and pictures. The owner, Rog, was very helpful, and drew me some additional diagrams in response to my questions.
73,
Fred
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W8RAN
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 19, 2005 07:54
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Wonderful performance!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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What can I say but great! It's been up a year now and it has worked perfectly. It withstood an ice storm which left 1 3/4 inches of ice on it for a week last Christmas. Finally melted and sprung back up. It's a keeper.
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ZL4PO
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 23, 2004 02:44
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Best HF antenna I have ever owned
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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Good things come in small packages ! Surprised
that such a big antenna could fit in a 6 ft long
x 6" x 6" cardboard box. Shipping to New Zealand ex Tennadyne USA went smoothly and was
timed to coincide with the week I was going to
be in Christchurch, the entry port in N.Z.
The instructions are concise and well detailed;
Construction I found was not intuitive, but after a few false starts I found assembly was straightforward. All drilling and element fittings were accurate and the antenna went together well. No element end bungs were supplied so I purchased these for both the element tips and the boom end of the elements.
I did not put boom plugs in however, as water
ingress in the boom is normal and has to be allowed to escape. The antenna still makes quite
alot of whisting in the wind however, even with the element tip bungs.
I used 2" lengths of glued heatshrink over each of the element joins, just enough to cover the
actual join and the s/steel PK screw.
I sealed the Collins balun pigtails with
glued heatshrink, then a covering of denso
(petroleum grease) tape just to be sure.
Make sure the braid side of the balun goes
to the underside of the boom, as this minimises
the risk of coax cable puncture-voltage breakdown.
The boom to mast clamps were supplied without
a backplate, so I manufactured these and had them
hotdipped to give extra strength to the plastic
boom to mast insulator block. It has not slipped
in the three months it has been up, despite some
strong wind gusts
Tennadyne state "Do not use Anti-oxide greases on this antenna" without giving a reason, but I thought about it and concluded that the use of
any such product on the boom especially might
alter the velocity factor, and therefore the
phasing of the whole array!
I did a test setup at about 15 feet above ground, but the longest elements drooped quite abit so my test measurements using a Bird 43 & IC706 were inconclusive; SWR plots were quite high but I decided not to do anything to the antenna as I
felt sure the antenna would resonate when it was raised to the operating height at 23M up the Rohn tower.
This proved to be the case: Fed with Andrew
FHJ4-50 Heliax and SWR measurements in the
shack using a Bird 43 were as follows:
14.0MHz 1.25:1
14.1 1.15:1
14.2 1.075:1
14.3 1.075:1
18.0MHz 1.39:1
18.1 1.3:1
18.2 1.3:1
21.0MHz 1.58:1
21.1 1.48:1
21.2 1.12:1
21.3 1.11:1
21.4 1.39:1
24.8MHz 1.39:1
24.9 1.46:1
28.0MHz 1.11:1
28.1 1.48:1
28.2 1.52:1
28.3 1.58:1
28.4 1.58:1
28.5 1.6:1
28.6 1.6:1
28.7 1.58:1
28.8 1.55:1
28.9 1.52:1
29.0 1.4:1
29.5 1.15:1
Nominal maximum SWR specified by Tennadyne is
1.7:1, so it is well within spec on all bands,
although perhaps the 10M element #9 could be
increased in slightly in length so that SWR
figures would be better for the lower end of
10M band, Instead of the high end of 10M band!
Some experimentation is called for here but my
tower is not tiltover.v
On air results have been great. I am consistently
getting reports of big signals into EU and USA -
and compared to my old 3 element trapped triband yagis this antenna is a winner.
For instant QSY's across 5 HF bands, an antenna
with no traps to compromise bandwidth or go wrong, I recommend this antenna highly. Maybe
a two element five band quad would beat it, but it is a lot harder to get a quad up and keep it up if you dont have a tiltover tower
please email me with any comments
or questions: zl4po@xtra.co.nz
73
Lester ZL4PO
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G4DHF
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 10, 2002 18:46
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Outstanding Performance
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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The previous reviews give the general information of what this antenna is about, but the bottom line is that this antenna performs extremely well. I experienced one or two minor difficulties during assembly, particularly with the boom spacers not being drilled quite square and the problems of retro-fitting the stub. I drilled two additional holes so that the stub could be attached without having to remove the rear element bolts.
The twin booms make for a rigid and strong design and the aircraft-grade aluminium elements suggest that this antenna is going to last. Take care with the instructons as the parts list gives a different dimension to the length of element 2. 34" of .875 is provided but this length is later referred to in the text as being 23". The parts length of 34" is correct so do not do any cutting of any of the supplied lenghts! This is a huge antenna, but I still managed to place it on my tower on my own by fitting both the stub and longest elements when the beam was lifted a few feet off the ground. I used pop rivets, two for each element section to provide additional strength. The elements flex in the wind and produce some interesting noises when doing so. It's a shame that element end caps were not provided.
This antenna out performs a previous 3ele 20M monobander which I had been using and appears equal in gain to my 5ele 10M yagi. The VSWR is within the figures quoted. Likewise, the F/B is entirely satisfactory and the quoted gain of 6.1dbd seems entirely realistic. Despite some of the minor problems experienced in assembly, this antenna does everything that is expected of it making operation on the five upper HF bands more competitive. To be recommended. 73, David
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G4OBK
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Rating: 5/5
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May 17, 2001 11:08
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Part 2 of my review
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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Tennadyne T10 Log Periodic Review - Conclusion
The antenna has now been in use for 9 months and I am very satisfied with its performance. Please refer back to Part 1 of my review.
One problem that I had with the antenna was the boom to mast clamp, which wasn?t up to the job. Apparently I was one of the last to receive this type of fixing. Tennadyne were good enough to send me the updated boom/mast clamp assembly and since this was fitted in January 2001 I haven?t had a problem. Previously if the wind got up in excess of about 40 MPH the antenna would ?pinwheel? on the stub mast no matter how much I tightened the boom to mast clamp.
Tennadyne tell me that the updated assembly is now part of every antenna.
I?m very satisfied with the antenna?s performance. In October it allowed me to easily work K5K on all bands 20m through to 10m. I have no reason to doubt the gain figure of 6.1 dBd quoted by the manufacturer and the front to back seems to be as quoted. I haven?t had the opportunity to do any real comparisons with other beam antennas but I did enlist the help of Ger G0UVR who lives 5 miles away from me to measure the front to back ratio on his TS430s S-Meter. Without the use of proper test equipment the results are rather vague, however the front to back ratio on all bands 20m through to 10m varied between 3.5 and 7 S-Points which doesn?t say a lot about the accuracy of our measurements - assuming that one S point equals 6 dB! However, it does indicate that the antenna exhibits plenty of front to back ratio.
I can?t find much out about Tennadyne but do know that the proprietor formerly worked for Mosley. I?m pleased with the antennas performance and versatility all on a single boom and would purchase it again.
Phil Catterall G4OBK
Concluding my review for the Chiltern DX Club Digest April 2001
Posted on E-Ham websire: May 17th 2001
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G4OBK
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Rating: 4/5
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Nov 20, 2000 03:04
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I would purchase the antenna again
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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For G3XTT Don Field, Editor CDXC Digest.
This review is one that I wrote for Chiltern DX Club (The UK DX Foundation) November Digest.
I'll post the final part when I've written it and fully tested the antenna. The only problem that I've had so far is the boom to mast clamp which has insufficient strength to hold the antenna firm on the stub mast. "Pinwheeling" occurs at wind speeds in excess of about 40 mph. Tennadyne are mailing me a retro kit so that I can improve the grip of the clamp to the mast. I'll report in the next review if the parts did arrive and if they work. 73 Phil G4OBK
REVIEW
The Tennadyne T10 Log Periodic Antenna - Part 1
Having moved to a new QTH in January 2000 with more space, I obtained planning permission for a 59ft/18m tiltover tower, 10ft/3m long stub mast and two multi-element antennas with a maximum boom length of 26ft/8m.
My main interest in the hobby is working DX on CW, SSB and RTTY on all HF bands, and 50 Mhz. I toyed with idea of purchasing a Cushcraft X7 for 10/15/20m and then stacking it with a Cushcraft A3WS for 12/17m above it. These two antennae are very popular amongst DXers and have been well written up previously. To also stack a 6m yagi on the 3m stub mast was stretching things just that bit too far for my rotator and would have created further chances of interaction between antennas which would mean reduced performance from all three. After a costing exercise on the X7/A3WS, which came out at £853, I did a similar exercise costing a USA made Tennadyne T10 Log periodic. The cost was in US Dollars and had to include UPS airfreight from the manufacturer in Texas, and customs import charges of 24%. At an exchange rate prevailing in June 2000 of $1.48 to the pound, the grand total came to £813.
Brief specification for the T10 LPDA:
Design frequency range: 13-33 Mhz
Quoted Gain measured on antenna range: 6.1 dBd
Front to back ratio: 15-25 dB rising with frequency
Elements: Ten - longest element 38ft/11.6m - turning radius 22ft/6.7m
Boom length: 24ft/7.3m
Weight: 49lbs/22.2kg
Surface area: 10.1sq ft/0.94sq m
Quoted wind survival rating: 100 MPH
Power Rating: Full US power limit
Typical Max SWR: 1.7:1
Half power beamwidth: 52 degrees
Feeder: 50 ohm coax via ?Collins? balun
I started researching the LPDA on the Internet and found that a number of UK based hams were using them. Peter G3MLO had a T10. Frank G2QT had an even bigger 12 element T12 on a 30 foot boom. He had previously used a T10. This I felt was a sure sign that the antenna would be a ?goer? or G2QT would have bought something else. I didn?t expect the antenna to shape up to the performance of a monobander - no multiband HF beam will, however from what these two gentlemen told me I could expect at least similar performance to a TH7 and I could expect it on the 18 and 24Mhz bands as well. G3MLO told me that he had previously used a TH7 and reckoned that his T10 outperformed it. The exact words from Frank G2QT, who in the past has used big quads but now uses the LPDA on account of the low maintenance, were ?It?s too easy with the T12. I rarely need to use an amplifier to work DX. The antenna works much better in practice than it does on paper?. So that clinched it. I ordered the antenna on the internet using Visa on the Wednesday and it was delivered to my door, straight from the factory via UPS, the following Tuesday. HM Customs have a streamlined import procedure arrangement with UPS - the recipient pays the delivery driver at the door, before the shipment changes hands. This saves the nightmare of going to the airport yourself and either paying an agent to clear the goods for you, or doing it yourself ? not recommended unless you have a full day to spare and enjoy studying manuals and filling in forms! I did this in 1994 when I imported a Sommer Log/Yagi. It was a long day - Manchester airport is over 100 miles from my North Yorkshire QTH.
Advantages of LPDA over other antennae:
1. 5 band operation on a single boom.
2. Trapless and virtually maintenance free.
3. No interaction with WARC band beam on same tower.
4. Space therefore created on 10 foot stub mast for a 50 Mhz Yagi with less chance of interaction.
5. Saving in weight/windloading of 33lbs/15kg and 20% less total surface area than on the X7/A3WS combination.
6. Small cost saving of £40 despite the high carriage costs and import duty.
7. No need to switch antennae or use ATU when operating on any frequency between 14-29.7 Mhz.
8. Use of a single feedline up the tower for 14 through 28 Mhz.
9. Broadband design means no compromise was made optimising the antenna design/set up to the CW section of each amateur band at the expense of the SSB section.
Disadvantages of LPDA over other antennae:
1. Greater chance of radiating spurii/harmonics due to broadband design.
2. Slight doubt about the performance of the antenna compared to other options.
3. Virtually impossible to dismantle the 24ft/7.3m boom once assembled.
4. Two nuts to retro fit the tuning stub to the rear of the boom as per the manual were not included.
Summary of Parts:
70 lengths of 6061-T6 aluminium tubing varying from 1? (25mm) O/D down to
0.375? (9.5mm) O/D
4 pairs of aluminium 1.5? (3.2mm) x 72? (1.82m) square boom sections
3 pairs of 8? (100mm) angle aluminium boom splices
14 boom insulator/spacer pieces
2 pairs of boom to mast insulators/mountings and reinforcer plates
68 stainless steel nuts/Nylok bolts
50 stainless steel self-tapping screws
4 washers
U-shaped aluminium tuning stub
Collins 4:1 coaxial balun
14 page A4 sized assembly instruction manual
Assembly/Construction
The antenna arrived undamaged in a strong long white cardboard box. I noted that one of the 4 pairs of twin square boom sections had been incorrectly part marked. The parts however were all present and correct to the Master Parts List (see photo). All bolts and self-tapper screws are stainless steel and no jubilee clips are used in the assembly. The quality of the T6-6061 aluminium tubing looked good. The tubing is quite dull in appearance. Some of the aluminium I?ve seen on other antennas has more lustre and seems to be of a softer grade.
The assembly of the T10 took approximately 15 man-hours spread over two days. This includes the time taken to mount the antenna to the mast and to cable it up. For part of this time I was assisted by my XYL Judy. The only difficult part was inserting the L-shaped angle boom splices inside the boom sections so as to allow the boom to be jointed together, Tennadyne recommend the use of graphite oil and WD40 to allow an easier fit. I used Copperslip compound, WD40 and a length of wood to cushion the blows from a lump hammer. As these splices were an extremely tight fit inside the square boom sections, when they were eventually fitted and bolted together it made the complete boom assembly very strong. The disadvantage being that dismantling of the boom to anything less than 24 feet overall length would be impossible. So don?t buy a Log Periodic to take away on DXpeditions!
The centre part of the twenty elements (10 per separate boom) were bolted into the booms and then the two booms were joined together using the insulators provided. To give further explanation to this you have to appreciate that the Tennadyne LPDAs are fed via the balun at the shortest element on the front of the boom, the twin boom then becomes the transmission line, each side of the boom being insulated from the other. Each element is driven. The design also incorporates a long U-shaped aluminium tuning stub that fits across the rear end of the twin boom to remove any possibility of the boom length being resonant in any amateur band spoiling the performance of the antenna. I reckon that the antenna is more complex to assemble than most HF multibanders apart from the KLM KT34 range, however a methodical approach, following the manual to the letter, paid dividends. The coaxial coiled balun simply feeds the boom via ring tongue tags and is secured to the underside of the boom along with the coax feeder with cable ties (not supplied). The boom therefore is hot with RF whenever you are transmitting. This is why the boom to mast clamp is insulated. The final item to fit to the rear of the boom is the u-shaped tuning stub. Tennadyne suggest that this is fitted when the antenna is complete. Nuts to retro fit the stub on top of the original element mounting nuts are not supplied, however I found some with the correct thread in my bits box and gave them a good coat of vaseline as they weren?t stainless. The addition of this de-tuning stub increases the effective total boom length by approximately 2.75ft/800mm.
The antenna has been on the tower for three days now and first impressions are good. In the next digest I?ll tell you how it measures up and if it did actually perform against my alternative plan of the X7/A3WS combination by doing comparisons with other local amateurs and measuring the gain and F/B ratio from a site a few miles from my QTH.
Copyright: Phil Catterall G4OBK
e-mail: phil.catterall@ntlworld.com
Reference: http://www.tennadyne.com/
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K4TBN
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Rating: 4/5
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Oct 24, 2000 00:40
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quality antenna
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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This is a strong, well built antenna. Without having a test range available to confirm Tennadyne's claims, I believe the antenna performs as advertised. The T10 really does seem to play.
Assembly, at first, was difficult. I'm the first to admit that I am far from being mechanically inclined and could really have used better documentation. The instruction manual should have utilized photographs to illustrate step by step instructions. Upon request, Chuck, who was very reachable, did email photos. During assembly, I discovered the internal boom supports did not fit. Chuck said this part was too big and would have to be worked with a metal file until all four fit inside the boom. This should have been done at the factory. The bolts used on the boom to mast blocks need to be at least an inch longer so mounting would be easier. The insulating boom to mast blocks require a 2 inch OD mast - period. It would be nice to have the option of using other mast sizes. Also, many of the sheet metal screws used to assemble the elements broke with only hand tightening. I hope I will never have to disassemble this antenna. Still, if it ever came to it, I would readily buy this antenna again.
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