| NZ2V |
Rating:  |
2024-11-12 | |
| Satisfied Plus |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I mounted my new 10-40 Tak - tenna over the weekend 1- 11 November 2024. If you follow the instructions that Steve sends with the kit you will find assembly easy enough. I did not complete assembly in an hour and I don't think you will either unless you have built one before. It's not difficult, but ya gotta do it right. Mounting was a snap. I put mine up on a 15 ft telescoping mast that I built with schedule 40 pvc tubing. Resonance was the next step. MAKE SURE you get the tuning done on the ground BEFORE you raise the antenna. I just put er up and tried to match. Wore myself out going up and down the ladder. Brought the antenna back down, stood it the corner of my deck and got a 1:1 match in about 5 steps. Resonance changed very little when I raised the antenna to operating height. What happened next Blew My Mind. I have been operating for abt 10 years with a commercially built end fed antenna. The hot end was at 65 feet. When I brought the Tek-tenna up it clearly outperformed the end fed. My signal was reaching more people and I was pulling in near double my normal load! That's at 15 feet in a highly challenging HOA environment. Clearly I recommend this little jewel! |
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| K8HGX |
Rating: |
2023-01-03 | |
| Extraordinary Performance Compared to G5RV |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I worked a station in AZ (from my OH QTH) on 20M CW and got a 579 report using my G5RV (35 feet up), then remote switched to the TAK-Tenna and got a 599 from the same contact, using the same 300W power.
In addition, I mounted the antenna on a tripod and for storage purposes placed it temporarily within 1.5 feet of my sliding glass door, only about 5 feet off the ground. While working a station on 40M SSB, 300W power, I got a 59 on the TAK-tenna. Switched to my G5RV and got the same report. Amazing! |
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| KK7HHN |
Rating: |
2022-10-30 | |
| Great kit and phenomenal performance |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This is a phenomenal kit. The materials are very good, and the instructions are well written and easy to follow. I built the kit in a few hours and was able to resonate the antenna on 80M in less than an hour after completing the build.
I live on the second floor of an apartment building and have the antenna vertically oriented on the balcony. It is amazingly omni-directional even allowing me to make contacts behind me that are blocked by the apartment building and were not achievable using other antennas.
I am using a Palstar HF-Auto tuner for the other bands (40 – 6M) which auto-tunes in a matter of seconds.
You will not be disappointed with this kit or the performance.
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| KG4INO |
Rating: |
2021-10-03 | |
| Easy to Install and 1 Great Antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Update:
I want to update all of you with the TAK-TENNA that I have and it is flawless. GREAT ANTENNA!!!!! It is my primary antenna for my Yaesu FT-991A and I use it for my digital communication mainly FT8 and FT4. It is 1 S unit quieter than my vertical antenna. I am very happy with the performance of this antenna.
SETUP:
Yaesu FT-991A
MFJ 962D Tuner
MFJ-915 RF LINE ISOLATOR connected near the antenna
Tak-Tenna for 80 Meters
First I would like to thank the person/s who made a research and making this antenna. The antenna is well made and the instruction are so clear and understandable. They said to call when you are ready to resonate the antenna but I just followed the instructions and I have a 1:1.5 swr on 3.7MHZ. I have tried to mount it horizontally as a directional antenna but it did not meet my liking. I installed it vertically and now I am a happy with the omnidirectional pattern of it. I do voice and FT8 transmission on it and it is flawless. It is one great antenna, with a tuner installed between the radio and antenna I can transmit on all the bands 80 - 10 meters. It's mounted roughly 15 feet off the ground and it works great. |
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| W7EWJ |
Rating: |
2021-09-26 | |
| Surprisingly Easy to assemble! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I spent many hours looking for a multiband HF antenna that would not be a dummy load vertical, or a trap vertical relying on miles of counterpoise wiring, or a single/limited band dipole. I stumbled across the Tak-tenna during one of my late night marathon antenna searches.
After reading the description and sending an email to the Antenna's designer Steve WA2TAK (which he promptly answered), and reviewing the prices, I purchased the larger version of the antenna, the 80 meter one.
When the antenna's parts arrived in two shipping boxes, I admit I was tempted to return it because of the odd construction steps the instructions called for. I'm 76 years old, and no longer looking for major challenges. BUT, I decided to give it a try anyway, especially since I found Steve very available via email and ready to help if needed.
Steve's enthusiastic assembly time estimate on the Tak-tenna web page is I'm sure based on the assembly skills of young Hams with recent antenna construction experience. It took me 2 days, but, by following the very complete instructions, carefully! and methodically, I put it together with NO mistakes or do-overs.
And how does it work? Great! I soldered the leads to the spirals resonated to 1 to 1 on the frequency of my daily Net (3.960) AND using my MFJ 993B tuner, I can get SWR below 1.5 on down to 1 to 1 on all the other HF bands!
I have it on a 20 foot fiberglass mast, zip tied to the hand rail of my rear deck (deck is 5' above the yard) so it is 25' in the air and my signal reports are outstanding. There doesn't seem to be too much directional nulling when I hand turn it in its zip ties, but it works well without directional directivity. I have the antenna in the horizontal position. You can see my antenna and installation among the photos on the Tak-tenna web page.
SOOOO, if you are looking for a multiband HF dipole antenna that can be oriented horizontal or vertical, needs no counterpoise (because its a dipole), probably has some directivity, can handle a hefty watt load, and makes a cool perch for humming birds (when not in use), try the Tak-tenna! I did, and I'm very happy with it! |
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| KM4KO |
Rating: |
2021-08-23 | |
| This is an amazing Antenna |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have owned this antenna for 10 years and I just finished refurbishing my antenna. I did a clean up and with the help of Steve at Tak-Tenna I was able to get this up in running. I have been able to talk all over and it is a great solution for stealth in you area. I live in California and have even reached Japan with my rig. Great buy and easy to install. |
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| S52CC |
Rating: |
2021-07-21 | |
| DXCC 200 in 5 years |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
On October 29 2013, I worked Robert, 3B9FR on 12 m band CW and this was my 200th DXCC entity worked with TAK-tenna 40 multiband antenna 183 of them being already confirmed. Well worth a small celebration I guess.
In the past five years that I have this TAK-tenna, I have logged 4373 QSOs on all bands between 40 and 10 m bands, some even on 80 m. The resonated antenna is 50 Ohm direct-fed and vertically oriented.
Protruding from a 3rd story balcony of my previous apartment the antenna was “blocked” by the building on the north-west. Between the building and the paved street some 11 m below there was a narrow stripe of grass.
My present balcony (3rd story again) is inside a 5 story U-shaped construction visually open only to the south. About 8 m below the antenna is the concrete roof of a supermarket. Even with these restrictions I worked over 90 DXCC entities in all parts of the world in less then a year. Just like before my equipment is the Yaesu FT-450 with maximum 100 W output.
I am sure that no other antenna would have ever brought me more pleasure than those two little spirals, and just as TAK-tenna states it has “brought excitement to my QSOs”.
Vince, S52CC
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Earlier 5-star review posted by S52CC on 2010-04-22
Recently two years passed since I assembled the little wonder and there is very little to add to my previous review of September 2008. Since then there are some 2400 QSOs in my log with 144 worked and 110 confirmed DXCC entities. All continents except Antarctica are represented, 35 US states (including Hawaii), and some much sought-after DX stations in the Mid- and Far-East, Africa, and Oceania. I am sure more are to come as I happily continue to use the two modest spirals. And the conditions may also improve sometimes in the future...
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Magic on Magic Band
This is my third review and a small addition to already described excitements TAK-tenna brought to me. On HF bands I made the first recorded transatlantic TAK to TAK QSO, reached 18.000 km/11.200 mi to New Zealand, and worked 229 DXCC entities with 213 meanwhile confirmed.
A few weeks ago I noticed on SKCC Sked Page that some fellow members were making contacts on 6 m band. I have no explanation why not before, but only then I tried to tune the TAK-tenna on that band. Immediately I made my first 6 m QSO with Bert, F6HKA a prominent SKCC member with others following. By now I worked 19 European DXCC entities, reaching about 1.900 km/1.200 mi to Spanish Atlantic coast to the SW and about 1.300 km/800 mi into Central Ukraine to the NE. The antenna is surprisingly broad-band, easy to tune with SWR below 1:1,5 all over the range between 50.070 to 50.300 kHz. The reports are excellent and vary only little when using full 100 W or reduced power of 20 W. Just like before my rig is Yaesu FT-450 with MFJ-949E tuner.
I regret not reading other reviews earlier as a number of hams reported the use of TAK-tenna on 6 m. With HF propagation being still so poor I may become a 6 m fan at least as long as the good conditions exist on the band.
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| WF3W |
Rating: |
2021-07-16 | |
| TAK + PalSTAR = PERFECTION |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
A chimney collapse took-out my ant farm [LONG story, have all of us in tears]
I have been assembling a min-ant farm until repair work is completed.
As a new owner of a PalStar HF-Auto tuner, I was very eager to pair it with my TAK. If it's hard to improve TAK-TENNA's performance, I just discovered how!
With the HF-Auto, SWRs are 1.0X or, at worst, 1.1X. If you can float a PalStar product, I urge you to consider the HF-Auto.
After years of expereince with other brands of autotuners, superiority of PalStar is unquestioned.
Phil, WF3W |
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| WD8IWJ |
Rating: |
2021-02-19 | |
| Easy to install and great results |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I've just purchased my second tak-tenna because of the great results I've experienced over the past 13 years with my first purchase. I initially turned the antenna at about 10 feet and was able to get a 1:1 SWR after moving the clips about 3 times. When I raised the antenna to 21 feet I did not experience any increase in the SWR.
I was initially concerned about the design and construction and how it would hold up in the NE with the snow and ice we get and the impact of the ocean air, as I'm within a mile of Cape Cod Bay. So far-13yrs- the antenna has loaded up with ice and snow and has not been damaged in any way.
It's been effective in working all over the US, South America and Europe.
In recent snow storm my support broke and I had to lower the array. For the past two weeks the 40m has been about two feet off the ground and horizontally polarized. Even in this position I've been able to use it to get into the ECARS net.
Give my experience with the antenna I'm really looking forward to assembling, installing and using the 80m version. |
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| K9BAY |
Rating: |
2021-01-16 | |
| Not Working |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Let me first say that I am rating 1 star because without buying and adding a balun and choke, I had way too much RFI from this antenna. I added a 1:1 balun and was able to get it to tune OK at 30 watts on the resonant band 40 M, but increasing the power caused my SDR radio to shut down due to high RFI.
I have installed and configured approximately 5 antennas including using a 9:1 UNUN and a 75’ gutter with ground radials and made contacts with 81 countries. I have setup 3 verticals and several dipoles. I never had any problems as I have with this antenna.
On a positive note, Steve @ Tak-Tenna has been very responsive and spent time with me to get the antenna resonant. I found that even a slight movement of the feed line or adjusting the height, slightly turning the antenna (mounted on a mast), would increase the SWR ie from 1.7 to 2.0. It is almost like you had to secure the coax, set the proper height on the mast, and make it resonant by using the alligator clips on the antenna and then solder. But that is not physically possible.
One reason I purchased this antenna was because of the number of positive reviews. I must be missing something major here, overlooking something??? I posted a thread on QRZ trying to get some ideas from the current users. There was lots of feedback on the antenna theory, but no actual Tak-Tenna users replied with possible solutions.
To be fair, if I can get this antenna working in the spring, I will gladly post a positive review here.
I don’t know how it just worked for the reviewers here on eHam without adding a balun and or choke.
For now (winter time) I have taken the antenna down and stored it away until spring. I may end up moving it to different locations to eliminate the possibility of interference. I feel I have made an effort (hours and hours) to get this antenna on the air.
Thanks!
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