HFU HF Underground
Technical Topics => Equipment => Topic started by: Pigmeat on May 26, 2022, 0157 UTC
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It seems like everyone who lists their equipment on radio forums has at least one, but in face to face conversations they've got nothing good to say about them. I've got three or four and think they're dandy. Nothing wrong with something that's cheap and does the job.
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I still have my MFJ-16010 from the 90's and took it out of storage to use with my Belka receiver when I first got it. It is cheap, but does exactly what it advertises to do so no complaints here.
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I have a 993B sitting next to me hooked up to a 137' doublet and a pair of Bonito Boni-Whips connected to a Yaesu FT-847. Use it mainly as a fancy antenna switch, but I do tune up the doublet. Have no complaints with it.
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I've always used properly tuned antennas for my stuff and don't use tuners with one exception. For a while, I had a FT-857 in my pickup with a CB whip on the back. I had an SGC autotuner in the bed feeding the whip. It worked pretty well on 40 and 20, not real good on 75M though.
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I have used several of the MFJ Antenna Tuners over 20 years or so. The only problem that I have encountered is the slide switches sometimes stop working. I had good luck with switch cleaner. The tuners' design is a classic design (High Pass Tee Match). The matching is fairly good, but it does have it limits. Trying to match too high or too low of impedance with a 100 watts will result in an arc occurring on one capacitors. That was before I got an antenna analyzer. I know of a couple of people who generally had good luck with them. I think the problems occur when one does not know the matching limitations.
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They are used rarely, but I have MFJ-901B and MFJ-16010 tuners. I changed out the knobs on the 16010, but otherwise, no real complaints to note. They simply work.
I have various other MFJ baluns, preamps, etc. as well. Yeah, there are other brands with admittedly better QA testing, but most of the MFJ products I have work decently enough for my purposes.
That said, the current pricing of some MFJ products is getting a little "out there" IMO, even with the ongoing parts supply situation. A couple of personal experience examples....
My MFJ-784B DSP that mostly collects dust. It works okay for its intended purpose, but is it $369.95 useful? Probably not for most people. I prefer my old Timewave DSP-9 devices for usability, assuming I am even bothering with an outboard audio DSP at all these days.
https://mfjenterprises.com/collections/filter/products/mfj-784b
Actual usability aside, it is about the same for my VEC-162 going unused on a shelf. $299.95 versus HamScope or similar freeware. Hmmm.
https://mfjenterprises.com/products/vec-162
....and thankfully those were purchased used years ago for far more reasonable prices.
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I have two of their tuners. When I go shopping, I'm not seeking them out but given the amount of them on the used market, you will see some for sale and given my needs and time schedule, I have gone for them.
They seem to work OK but I also haven't come close to stressing them either. I'm always careful not to hotswitch them, for example. Some of their other equipment reportedly suffers from some workmanship issues but these seem OK in that regard.