Tak-tenna Ham Radio Antenna

[Tallman]

I have been looking at these for a while and if they truly work I most probably will buy two of them. One horizontal on a rotator and one vertical.
Has anybody had any experience with these antennas or the company? This would be better than the multi-band vertical antennas in that no buried ground planes required.

 

[Justme]

It is a very shortened dipole where on both ends of that shortened dipole large capacity's are made of the wire.
Most results I heard were not really good, it will transmit, but so will any piece of wire.
The results most get is that the TAK antenna will be 2 to 3 S points down on even an baby G5RV antenna.
Betting that through the high capacity hats bandwidth will be small as well, you will need a very large range tuner with it and feed it with open line.

As with most shortened antenna;s there is no wonder antenna, shortening a dipole further as 70% of the full length will cost you signal.
Just my 2 eurocents

 

[warrior369]

I've not used this particular antenna, agree totally with the poster above and would like to add a few comments.
I read all the reviews on eham and most say it works fine/great etc (5/5) and some say its a dummy load (0 or 1/5).
A capacitively loaded short dipole will be tricky but not impossible to tune. The coax may or may not form part of the transmit RF via CMC (common mode currents). One way to check this is to insert an RF choke as close to the feedpoint as possible and use a short as possible length of coax as you can.

There are so many environmental RF variable at play here its tricky to decide which way to go. If you are short on space or have planning issues with antennas, I guess this antenna is better than no antenna.
Buy or build one and see how it goes, each antenna installation system is unique and your variables may lend itself to these types of antennas performing well - suck it and see.
I hope it goes well.

 

[Mudfoot]

Operators that are forced to use limited space antennas will almost always rate a wet noodle 5 stars on Eham. They're just so damn happy that anything works.

However, I subscribe to the notion that anything is better than nothing.

 

[Justme]

It is difficult to make an antenna that will not radiate, question is how effective the antenna is.
Having nothing or a TAK antenna will make that TAK antenna your only antenna, having nothing to compare it to will lead to the glowing reviews...

IF you like me are used to a FD-4 OCF antenna at 50 feet up, or the IMAX 2000 for 10/12 or the 77 feet inverted L with 77 feet horizontal and 3000 feet radials with MFJ 998 auto tuner at the feed point, things look different and then the TAK antenna's shortcomings will become painfully clear.

Yes, I had my moments too, running my FT 847 on the test bench with 2 watt minimal power into an dummy load with 3 feet of wire on it, and getting a signal report back from the USA.....pure conditions, nothing to do with the crummy antenna.

Yes, sometimes we have to do with stealth antenna's or short antenna's due to the limitations of where we live or HOA's ( we don't have these here in the Neherlands)

Have a look here: http://www.pa0fri.com/ and click the antenna section for some idea's for short H.F antenna,s or get the ARRL, RSGB antenna handbook, or Low Band DXing from ON4UN.
Those are used by me to get my antenna idea's out and experiment.

Good luck with your set up.

 

[SIX-SHOOTER]

Ever heard the term "SNAKE OIL? Well now you know what it looks like!

 

[sp5it]

Don't waste your hard earned money. Skip it.
Mike

 

[Tallman]

Thanks for the feed back. I keeping my money in my pocket for now.

 

[Riverman]

Has anybody had any experience with these antennas or the company?

Should be able to let you know something tomorrow, Tallman.
Received mine yesterday. It is assembled and ready to hang.
Hope to do so in the morning.

 

[Beetle]

It's every bit as good as the Gotham vertical, advertised back in the 1960s.

 

[Road Squawker]

...

 

[Riverman]

Was going to start a new thread but will just use this one instead.

Standard 40 Meter TAK-tenna Review

Comes neatly packaged:



Booms attached:



Copper wire in place:



Resonating wire and coax attached:



Hung in attic:



Lowest results I was able to achieve:



Efficiency in middle of phone band:



My biggest culprit (10' from antenna):



Conclusion:
If I had an antenna tuner, I'd probably use it as is. Since I don't, I'd like the SWR's to be a little lower. Believe I'll move it to the backyard on a painter's pole.
But not right now. Watching Dallas Cowboys. And Chiefs/Patriots after that.
Forecast is for rain the next few days so not sure when I'll be able to proceed.
Will report back when I do.

Disclaimer:
I had no high expectations for this antenna. It is what it is. But as I've said before, I just like fooling with stuff like this. It was indeed fun to put together and try out. (Although I did get tired walking up and down the attic stairs.) Hopefully will get a little better results outside in the clear.

Stay tuned.
Or not.

 

[Riverman]

Well, the report on the outside setup is not forthcoming.
Out of the blue was asked if I would be interested in selling it, thought about it, and did. Might be for the best. It is a strange looking thing and on a painter's pole in my backyard my neighbors might have thought It was a listening device or something .

For what it's worth:
Outside in the clear I think it would have worked decently on 40 meters. Not sure about using it on other bands. Would definitely need a good tuner for that.

Now on to my next project.

 

[sp5it]

Without compare to full size dipole this "review" is not really helpful.

 

[Riverman]

Without compare to full size dipole this "review" is not really helpful.

I disagree. For the guy thinking about putting one in his attic next to his heating/cooling unit, it gives him an idea of what he might can expect.

If I had room to put up a full-sized 40 meter dipole, I wouldn't need TAK-tennas and the such.