| W4LWY |
Rating:     |
2008-01-22 | |
| Well Built |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| T-6 was a very good antenna. I had it up for a year. I replaced it with another Tennadyne product. For the price, size and band coverage, the T-6 is the way to go. The antennas are built to last. They are built very well! However, they need to work on their customer service. You can e mail them and hardly ever get a response. You call and get a recording. I have called a few times and never got my call returned. I guess if you want them to call you back you better say that you’re ready to buy. I’m not trying to make a big deal of this but it is worth mentioning and that’s why you have this forum. Last point, ordered a new Tennadyne and they said I would have it in two weeks, well, just about a month later and no antenna. Called today and someone actually picked up the phone. Great product, customer service good be better. |
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| N4ATS |
Rating:      |
2008-01-11 | |
| Awesome |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Awesome construction and Class "A" workmanship. Simple to put together (1.5 hrs) and is pretty much self explanitory when assembling. I got mine on a Thursday , up and running on Friday. Antenna is 55 feet and I put it up myself! Very light but stong. Signals jumped 3 to 4 "S" units compaired to my taken down my Cushcraft MA5B. Great antenna! Pictures of my T-6 will be on the Tennadyne website soon. Thanks Tennadyne. |
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| W5CPT |
Rating:      |
2007-10-08 | |
| Good value for the money |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have had my T-6 for over 3 years and have had it mounted on different supports over that time. It is now at 36' on the edge of a ridge making the effective height a little better. The antenna went up and down because I have been trying (finally successfully) to decouple the coax from the antenna to improve the pattern. The final arrangement is a W2DU ferrite balun (not reccommended by the original builder of the antenna in Texas) at the front of the booms (the feed point) and a Solonoid wound choke where the coax leaves the booms to the mast. With only the "Collins Balun" at the feed I noticed the same broad front lobe and only fair Front to Back that others have. With the present arrangement, the front lobe is noticably narrower and the F/B is much improved. After all my testing and playing I am now even more pleased with this antenna.
Clint - W5CPT |
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| W3JAC |
Rating:      |
2007-09-28 | |
| Good antenna for the money |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I have had this up for about five months and it does it all. From 20 meters to 10 meters with no matching. SWR O.K. on all bands and it is not to bad on 6 meters either.
I replaced a cushcraft MA5B at 40 feet with the T-6 at 70 feet.
Directions are hard to follow but with a little help from wc3f and k3qlz all worked out.
If you have the room you can not go wrong with this antenna. W3JAC |
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| K2LGO |
Rating:     |
2005-12-29 | |
| GOOD ANTENNA, GOOD PRICE |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| I DIDN'T WANT TO COMMENT ON THE ANTENNA UNTIL I HAD ACTUALLY GIVEN THE UNIT A DECENT SHAKEDOWN...WELL THE ANTENNA PERFORMS AS PER TENNADYNE'S SPECS...THE MATERIAL IS FIRST RATE...PUTTING IT TOGETHER TAKES SOME THINKING, BUT ROGER IS GOOD ABOUT GIVING YOU ALL THE ADVICE YOU MIGHT NEED..HAD A MINOR PROBLEM WITH THE JOINT BETWEEN MY TWO BOOM SECTIONS, AND ROGER ONCE AGAIN GOT A NEW PIECE OFF TO ME QUICKLY.SO FAR MY EXPERIENCES HAVE BEEN MOSTLY ON 20 METERS, AND 17 METERS, WHERE THE ANTENNA HAS MADE A GOOD SHOWING FOR ITSELF..I WOULD LIKE TO SEE ROGER INCLUDE A BETTER TYPE OF BOOM TO MAST CLAMP, AS THE CURRENT SETUP I BELIEVE WILL EVENTUALLY ALLOW SOME TWISTING IN HIGH WINDS..HARD TO BEAT THE VALUE FOR A FIVE BAND, ONE FEEDLINE ANTENNA...K2LGO..BOB |
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| N9VR |
Rating:      |
2005-11-19 | |
| Big signal, Small Footprint |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| 3 years old now, and still going strong. This is a very nice antenna for the price and size. Do to many antenna problems in the past I have the T6 mounted on a Hazer Tram for ease of maintenance. After 3 years I have never had to crank it down! This small log is very durable. A keeper for sure! |
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| W7RJR |
Rating:     |
2005-03-12 | |
| Great antenna, terrible instructions |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I give this otherwise wonderful antenna a 4 instead of a 5 because of the awful instructions that come with it. I spent more time trying to figure out the instructions than I did actually putting this antenna together. Be prepared to make mistakes, assemble and disassemble until you figure out what is supposed to happen. Photos and diagrams are sparse. The parts are not well marked. Tolerances are very tight. The insulator near the long element was impossible to put together without drilling it out. In short, this was one of the most frustrating antenna assemblies I have ever encountered.
Once beyond the difficulties of assembly, I can say that the quality is outstanding. This is one sturdy antenna. I am a little concerned about the sheet metal screws used to hold the elements together and may replace them with pop-rivets. The elements are easy to bend so be careful. There was no extra hardware so take care not to lose any. The instructions called for the shorting bar to be placed on the back of the boom after removing the screws that hold that element together....right! Forget it and put the shorting bar on with a few nuts you may find around the shack or garage. I coiled up about 8 feet of coax to make a balun, seems to work.
My first test of the antenna was promising. SWR was 1.5:1 on all the bands it covers. The front to side rejection was great with deep nulls off the side(s). F/B ratio was about as advertised, not great on 20 meters, maybe 15 dB; better as you go higher. When tested against my R7 vertical the T6 was easily 2 S-units better.
Bottom line: Great all around antenna with quality construction and materials. Instructions are terrible. Double check every detail before you think about putting it up. Despite the frustrating assembly/instructions I love this antenna. You will too.
73, W7RJR
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| NP2B |
Rating:      |
2005-01-29 | |
| excellent value for the $ |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
This is a second antenna, mounted on a different tower. Height is 30 feet, but tower is at edge of rather drastic dropoff, so the apparent height is better than 30 feet.
The machining of the antenna, the materials, the manual, are all superb.
My only complaint is the lack of a saddle between the boom and the mast. Even one of the notched ones would be an improvement. Check the Tennadyne website before you take this as a complaint, I think Roger is working on this. There are a lot of these antennas up, and they all seem to work without the saddle.
The antenna is very lightweight and easy to handle. It is rugged and well designed, so don't take the "lightweight" remark to mean wimpy. It's lightweight due to it's excellent design.
I have a KT-34 on a different tower, 10 feet higher, and with over 100 feet less feedline. Yes, the KT-34 will outperform the T-6, but the KT-34 cost over double what the T-6 costs and it won't cover 17 and 12 meters.
The antenna will "sing" in the wind. Tennadyne suggests not putting caps on the 3/8" ends so moisture can drain, but I taped the ends to prevent the polytonal song! Be careful about doing that in a climate where it might freeze though.
In closing, the only thing I can tell you is that if I were only able to have one tower, a Tennadyne log would on it. The T-6 is an excellent performer in a small space, and you don't sacrifice 17M
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| WA5EMA |
Rating:      |
2004-12-14 | |
| good buy |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I have only had antenna on tower for 3 days but I am very happy with it. It is averaging about 4 s-units better on receive than my dipole at about same height. I am getting about the same reports on the other end. It was not too hard to put together but getting it on my 40 ft tower was one big job. Thanks to Roger for all his help in answering my questions. I would recomend this antenna.
Freddie
WA5EMA |
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| W7KKK |
Rating:      |
2004-10-20 | |
| Tough Beam! |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I picked up the Tennadyne T-6 last Spring. I have never had a beam before, and only used beams as a radio operator for the Army a few times. They were mostly fixed in position.
I helped a friend put a T-6 up about 4 years ago. He loved it and swears by it today. He is a DX CW contest type while I like SSB Ragchew mode the best. I could not put up a beam until a year ago due to property restrictions so I was stuck until we relocated.
When I first raised the tower, a hinged bracket gave away down it all came. Not a good day at all. Lessons learned. The T-6 is tough though. It hit right on the boom, and then fell off to one side. I had to replace 10 sections of tubing which Tennadyne made available very reasonable and quickly. I could have straightened some of the tubing, but this is a new antenna so I just replaced the bent with new tubing. The boom, even after the shock of the tower behind it hitting the ground, suffered no damage whatsoever. I think that makes a pretty good statement about how tough this beam is. I don’t know who felt worse about the damage, me or Roger, WB8NDC. He took over the company and is continuing the great service. He answers your questions very quickly if you have any, and he is very patient with those of us that can’t seem to get it the first time.
I have had this beam operational now for about a month. I have it installed at 44’. I made no adjustments whatsoever to the tuning stub and the SWR on the 5 bands, 10-20 meters, is just fine.
It’s not as good as the expensive beams we had in the military, but they did not have a budget, as opposed to most of us. For the price, I think this antenna is great. How can you beat it for under $500, delivered to your door?
Assembly is easy once you get the idea through your head just how it’s going together. Don’t try to second guess the instructions, just follow them and you’ll be OK.
I finally hear things that are impossible with my 80 meter dipole and vertical and it seems much quieter than either of the other two as far as noise is concerned. And with 100 watts I can work stations and areas I seemed not to be able to reach reliably since my return to ham radio some 3 years ago. I used to say that if I could hear them, I could work them. Now I just hear a lot more of them to work.
The experts are right, spend some money on your antenna, and take the time to put it up right the first time.
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