  Tantalum is studied by the method of point-contact (PC) spectroscopy: the
parameter ${{\lambda }_{pc}}$ and the absolute intensity of the PC EPI function
are determined, and the form of the EPI function is determined more accurately.
Both homocontacts $Ta-Ta$ and heterocontacts $Ta-Cu$ and $Ta-Au$ were studied.
It was found that the contributions of copper and gold to the spectrum of the
heterocontact are not noticeable, though the forms of the PC spectra of $Ta$ in
homo- and heterocontacts are different. The intensities of the spectra of
$Ta-Ta$ homocontacts and $Ta-Cu$ heterocontacts turned out to be close to one
another. Simple expressions, enabling numerical calculations of the PC
characteristics for geometrically symmetric heterocontacts in the approximation
of a spherical Fermi surface, are derived, based on the theory. It is shown
that the use of the free-electron approximation in the numerical estimates
leads to an error. It is proposed that the effective mass approximation be used
for such estimates.
