Bill's- HomeBrewed Pan Cake - 40 Meter TAK-tenna

6/11/2008 8:17:20 AM (10 comments) Add a comment Add Comment

Ok - So no one is giving me any feedback - So I'm making my own.

Project Overview

So I've been reading about this Small Space antenna that is being sold as the TAK-Tenna. Really neat idea - Has a 30 inch boom and Spiral Coils on the ends. See a picture at http://www.taktenna.com/ Looks easy to build - Right ?

So I Built my version out of wood - Mine is very ugly as compared to the store bought one.

Materials and Tools

• Parts:

• 3 - Wooden sections - 1 1/2 in X 1/2 in X 8 ft - Cost 92 Cents each - Home Depot

• 1 - 100' Spool of Steel Guide/fence Wire - Cost - $7 - Home Depot

• 1 - 25 foot RG8 coax with PL259 - Radio Shack - Close Out - $5

• 2 Packages - Nuts/Bolts - $2 - Home Depot

• Total Material Cost: $16.76

The commercial version uses PVC and tie wraps, which would have been much easier.

Fab Time for my version was about 4 hours - Drilling Lots of Holes and feeding the wire in to make the Spiral Coils was most of the work.

However - Test wise it isn't bad I got it tuned up on 40 meters at about 8 feet off the ground and it has an SWR 1:2 to 1:5 from 7.30 to 7.175 MHZ. Also does ok on 15 meter - Tune up wise.

Bad news the performance is not Great - Signal pick up is several S units below my Dipole, but it does work.

From what I have read the Antenna has problems in that most of the performance is based on feedline radiation (See the links below).

http://lists.contesting.com/archives//html/Towertalk/2008-04/msg00339.html

http://groups.google.ie/group/rec.radio.amateur.antenna/browse_thread/thread/167fb7a34305cf3e

I'm still testing and will upload a picture of my ugly version at some point

It was an interesting experiment and the Antenna fits into a small space 24 inch X 30 inch. Hey it works. If you have no space it might be worth $20 and a few hours of your time or If you aren't a Homebrewer Buy one.

If you make your own one point - I needed more wire than the 468/7.2 MHZ = 65 Feet Total or 32.5 Feet per side - I had to add wire after the fact. So I would make it about 33.5 per side.

- Bill - KA6KBC - 73's

Comments

by Gary, pending. 7/8/2008 3:34:53 PM

Hi there;
We are wondering if you have tried your antenna in a verticle position. We have experimented with reception loops about 6" off the floor with excellant results.
Appreciate your work, look forward to the picture...

by Rod, KF4MXB. 7/13/2008 9:26:51 PM

The tak tenna I understand is fed with coax, and i hear that there's a lot of feed line radiation.Has anyone tried feeding it with twin lead or ladder line??

by Greg, K3ANG. 7/31/2008 8:51:11 PM

Greg here, qth nr Baltimore.

How much distance between turns on your spirals?
I want to attempt my own.

by Bill , KA6KBC. 8/12/2008 1:25:07 PM

Hi Greg,

Sorry for the delayed follow up.

My version is 24 inch Largest to 6 inch Smallest - 1 inch apart.

Thanks,

Bill Brown

by Bill , KA6KBC. 9/5/2008 2:42:13 PM

One more added item - Someone had a question about my dimensions:

Boom = 30 inches meaning Cross Pieces are about 30 inches a part.

Cross Pieces = 24 Inches Across or 12 Inches from center

Hole Spacing from Center, but this did not seem critical:

12 in
11 in
10 in
9 in
8 in
7 in
6 in
5 in
4 in
3 in

Total Turns = 10

73's

Bill - KA6KBC

by Dennis Dodson, K0PYB. 10/26/2008 9:54:32 PM

Outstanding! I found your comments and observations very interesting and with no real surprises. I well imagined the performance would not equal a full dipole at proper height. :-) I do wonder if you also tried tuning the lil critter on 30 and 10m? In my mind, I think it will and again will suffer the limitations of any miniaturized antenna. I think your comments are quite fair with regards to -- if you dont have the space or suffer from outrageous HOA type limitations, this may be the right antenna for that individual.
Good show! Well done!

by Bill, KA6KBC. 10/26/2008 10:36:29 PM

Hi Dennis,

Thanks for the nice feedback. No I have not tried 30M and 10M. It did Tune up on 15M ok. Folks seem to Love or Hate this antenna ~ Even with its
performance ~ I think it is an interesting Design approach.

You might also find the links below interesting:

http://wbilljohnson.com/zmvantenna/zmvantenna.htm#intro

http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?t=165641&page=5

73's,

Bill - KA6KBC

by Bill, KD4VLF. 11/8/2008 7:06:07 AM

1. I've been looking at this antenna, and I wonder if the difference could be due the the proprietary wire used in the retail version for the elements?
2. As far as tuning, I believe in the ad for the retail version they state using coax for single band operation and twinlead and a tuner for multi-band operation. I'm not really sure why coax and tuner couldn't be used.
3. The ad also states that the initial tuning and set-up of the antenna is very critical.
4. I've decided to try and build one myself, from the pictures I've seen, I don't see $100.00 worth of anything.

73, Bill KD4VLF

by Bill , KA6KBC. 11/11/2008 8:12:34 AM

Hi Bill,

See my comments below (>>).

1. I've been looking at this antenna, and I wonder if the difference could be due the the proprietary wire used in the retail version for the elements?

>> I don't think the wire will make much difference, but It would be great to see a Test.

2. As far as tuning, I believe in the ad for the retail version they state using coax for single band operation and twinlead and a tuner for multi-band operation. I'm not really sure why coax and tuner couldn't be used.

>> I don't recall seeing a note regarding twinlead - I'll have to look that up. I agree - Don't see why you can't just use Coax/Tuner.

3. The ad also states that the initial tuning and set-up of the antenna is very critical.

>> Yep tuning takes some care.

4. I've decided to try and build one myself, from the pictures I've seen, I don't see $100.00 worth of anything.

>> See my version posted in the Project Section of myhamshack.com

>> It would be great to hear how you version works out. Good Luck.

73's

Bill - KA6KBC

73, Bill KD4VLF

by Bill , KA6KBC. 11/11/2008 8:12:57 AM

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