I'm studying hard and planning a shack. I hope to be on the air by
June. So, is MFJ stuff any good?

To put it more bluntly, is it moderately priced practical equipment or
just throw-away junk? I'll settle for Chinese made --which I suspect
much of their stuff is-- if it's relatively decent in design/execution
and somewhat sturdy. I can see how the antennas and like hardware
could be decent, but how about the stuff like tuners and other
meters and electronic equipment. Thanks for any feedback.

nb

notbob wrote:
I'm studying hard and planning a shack. I hope to be on the air by
June. So, is MFJ stuff any good?

yes, it is quite good. It's not Chinese junk, it's actually all made in
their factory in the US.

If you've been asking yourself why the US car companies need a bailout,
you will get an education buying MFJ. If you already understand and expect
that "made in US" means things are not always 100% right, nuts and bolts
are loose, pop rivets are not all tightly popped, that's what you
will see.

The build quality is not that of aTen-Tec, nor is the design. But it's
a lot cheaper. Ten-Tec survives because they also make commerical and millitary
equipment, they can afford better skilled technicians, higher quality
parts and better quality control.

Martin F. Jue, is one of those people who never stops inventing things. You
can find an interview of him on YouTube, it's well worth watching. Jue does not
have millitary contracts to support his company, he lives off of the ham
radio business.

To put it more bluntly, is it moderately priced practical equipment or
just throw-away junk? I'll settle for Chinese made --which I suspect
much of their stuff is-- if it's relatively decent in design/execution
and somewhat sturdy. I can see how the antennas and like hardware
could be decent, but how about the stuff like tuners and other
meters and electronic equipment. Thanks for any feedback.

Be prepared to open your tuner and make sure that all the bolts are
tightened, there are no loose wires and no shorts.

As for service, they always have been willing to mail you a manual with
schematic anywhere in the world, now they are making them available for
downloads.

I recently decided that a 9020 (20m cw transceiver) I had bought in 1994 or
1995 was not receiving as well as it should, and carefully followed the
alignment procredure. It still did not perform as well as my 40m one,
so I went to their "ask a question" web page and asked for help.

I received an email from the guy that designed them. :-)

They also have a policy that you can either return a unit for warranty
service, or request repair parts. Who else does that?

My advice to you, is if you are (or plan to be) the kind of ham that opens
cardboard boxes, sets things up and uses them without ever wanting to look
inside, stay away from MFJ. If you want to be the guy that is involved
with his equipment and understands it inside and out, is not afraid to
fire up his soldering iron to fix a loose wire, and so on, then MFJ stuff
is good for you.

If you are not sure, you can always buy one of their cheaper tuners used
and if you don't like it sell it. Just make sure to buy it from someone
who will let you see it work (as in NOT on eBay).

Good luck.

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or
understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation.
i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.

notbob wrote in :
I'm studying hard and planning a shack. I hope to be on the air by
June. So, is MFJ stuff any good?

To put it more bluntly, is it moderately priced practical equipment or
just throw-away junk? I'll settle for Chinese made --which I suspect
much of their stuff is-- if it's relatively decent in design/execution
and somewhat sturdy. I can see how the antennas and like hardware
could be decent, but how about the stuff like tuners and other
meters and electronic equipment. Thanks for any feedback.

I have the following MFJ gear:

o MFJ-259 antenna analyzer; I like it a lot. It's not perfect, but it
works well enough for my purposes. Bought used.
o MFJ-906 6m tuner. It works very nicely.
o MFJ-921 2m/1.3m tuner. Works extremely well.
o MFJ-461 pocket CW reader. For solid copy, needs really good signal,
but still useful.
o MFJ-4225MV power switching supply. This is a good, solid, hash-free,
cool-running supply that not only drives my radios, but also is good
for electrolytic etching (see http://www.steampunkworkshop.com for
more). It's as good as my Samlex SEC 1223 power supply, puts out
less hash, and has meters.
o MFJ-564 iambic paddles. Not great, but serviceable. I need to take
it out of service and completely readjust it.
o MFJ-441 keyer (a gift). Works; I don't need it, as my radios have
keyers built in.
o MFJ-557 code practice oscillator with key. CPO is OK; key is trash.

Wow! I hadn't realized I had so much MFJ equipment.

Overall, it's low-to-middle end: not all junk, but not high-end gear,
either. Some of it is a bit overpriced, I think, but it's certainly not
priced like high-end gear, either.

When I was growing up, and when I was a new ham (think 1950s-1960s), there
was a real need for this sort of gear at this price level, and it just
wasn't available. I grant that lots more components were available locally:
I could walk into parts houses in Houston and get everything I needed,
except Big Inductors, Big Transformers, and Big Capacitors, to make a
linear or anything smaller. Some of this gear is hard to homebrew, and I'm
glad Martin Jue decided to start making and selling it.

--
Mike Andrews, W5EGO

Tired old sysadmin

mikea wrote:
o MFJ-259 antenna analyzer; I like it a lot. It's not perfect, but it
works well enough for my purposes. Bought used.

Do you have the user written manual? It is in German and AFAIK never translated
but a lot of it is pretty obvious anyway. For example the specs to make
your own "grid dip" coils can be figured out, once you understand the metric
wire sizes.


o MFJ-557 code practice oscillator with key. CPO is OK; key is trash.

If this the plastic based one with the bent metal U shaped bracket, it
was in the 1960's the key a lot of novices first learned to use. It can be
adjusted to work (how well is a matter of opionon) and IMHO should be
given to a boy scout or someone else interested in learning morse code.

You may be lucky, they might actually go far enough to come to the same
conclusion and buy a real key. :-)

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or
understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation.
i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.

In article ,
Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:

Do you have the user written manual? It is in German and AFAIK never translated
but a lot of it is pretty obvious anyway. For example the specs to make
your own "grid dip" coils can be figured out, once you understand the metric
wire sizes.

.... but, alas, probably not worth the effort (in my experience, at
least). The MFJ 2x9 with the grid-dip coils is absolutely the least
sensitive and hardest-to-use grid-dip oscillator I've tried.

A few years ago I did a three-way shoot-out between GDOs. The test
tank was a piece of scrap Airdux inductor, with an air-variable
capacitor soldered across the ends.

The MFJ had to have its probe coil shoved right up next to the end of
the coil to get a dip indication. The frequency readout was nice and
precise, but the dip was not terribly deep, and with the probe so
close to the coil I'd be very concerned about the probe "loading" the
tank and pulling it off frequency.

A Heathkit solid-state GDO was rather better, with a sharp dip
available with its probe about a half-inch away from the end of the
inductor.

The best results came from a Measurements 59 GDO - the old firebottle
model with a peanut tube in the sensing head. It got a sharp dip
deflection with the probe 2-3" away from the end of the inductor!
This model is big, clunky, and is probably the gold-standard for GDOs.

I've since picked up a Millen but haven't done a head-to-head
comparison with the others. Based on what I've read, it's probably
somewhere between the Measurements and the Heathkit in sensitivity.

The best approach might be a hybrid... use a good GDO to find the dip
frequency, then hold it near an MFJ 2x9 in frequency-counter mode to
get a precise readout of the frequency. It's a shame there's no
single GDO which has both high sensitivity and a really precise
frequency readout.

Might be a tempting project one of these days... build a lambda-diode
GDO and add a precise frequency counter module to it.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote in :
mikea wrote:
o MFJ-259 antenna analyzer; I like it a lot. It's not perfect, but it
works well enough for my purposes. Bought used.

Do you have the user written manual? It is in German and AFAIK never translated
but a lot of it is pretty obvious anyway. For example the specs to make
your own "grid dip" coils can be figured out, once you understand the metric
wire sizes.

Ich lese deutch.

o MFJ-557 code practice oscillator with key. CPO is OK; key is trash.

If this the plastic based one with the bent metal U shaped bracket, it
was in the 1960's the key a lot of novices first learned to use. It can be
adjusted to work (how well is a matter of opionon) and IMHO should be
given to a boy scout or someone else interested in learning morse code.

I was damn lucky: when I got my Novice ticket in 1962, my uncle Stu gave me
a Vibroplex J-36 (he used it as a radio op on B-25s in WWII, he told me)
and a J-38 that he also had used. Still have 'em.

You may be lucky, they might actually go far enough to come to the same
conclusion and buy a real key. :-)

Except for the high-end MFJ stuff, they appear to go for the lowest priced
stuff that will get the job done and last for the design lifetime -- which
I think is the warranty period.

--
Answer: two spoonfuls in my cup, please.
Question: how much should I use?

(why top-posting is bad)

On 2010-03-23, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:
My advice to you, is if you are (or plan to be) the kind of ham that opens
cardboard boxes, sets things up and uses them without ever wanting to look
inside, stay away from MFJ. If you want to be the guy that is involved
with his equipment and understands it inside and out, is not afraid to
fire up his soldering iron to fix a loose wire, and so on, then MFJ stuff
is good for you.

I have no fear of electronics hardware, having done time as an
electro-mechanical tech in Silicon Valley. I still have my trusty
Weller and am gathering parts to build a code oscillator and am also
researching radio kits to tackle. I just wanted a general opinion of
MJF, they being so prolific in a seemingly forgotten corner of basic
electronics. I know zip about radio, so studying for my license has
been both enlightening and fun. Thank you for your comprehensive take
on this company.

nb

mikea wrote:

Ich lese deutch.

Sehr Gut!

Except for the high-end MFJ stuff, they appear to go for the lowest priced
stuff that will get the job done and last for the design lifetime -- which
I think is the warranty period.

I have a tow MFJ tuners I bought circa 1995. One of them arrived with a
loose screw and the other had a pop rivet loosen (recently) on one of
the SO-239's on the back.

Both simple fixes.

Geoff.


--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
New word I coined 12/13/09, "Sub-Wikipedia" adj, describing knowledge or
understanding, as in he has a sub-wikipedia understanding of the situation.
i.e possessing less facts or information than can be found in the Wikipedia.

On 2010-03-23, notbob wrote:
I'm studying hard and planning a shack. I hope to be on the air by
June. So, is MFJ stuff any good?

I've been looking at their catalog, an '09 hard copy and the '10,
..pdf. What's the Ameritron stuff? Is that their high-end line? I
see on their website they recently acquired Cushcraft Antennas. Is that
what Ameritron is, an acquisition?

nb

"notbob" wrote in message
...
I'm studying hard and planning a shack. I hope to be on the air by
June. So, is MFJ stuff any good?

To put it more bluntly, is it moderately priced practical equipment or
just throw-away junk? I'll settle for Chinese made --which I suspect
much of their stuff is-- if it's relatively decent in design/execution
and somewhat sturdy. I can see how the antennas and like hardware
could be decent, but how about the stuff like tuners and other
meters and electronic equipment. Thanks for any feedback.

nb

I have an antenna tuner by MFJ. It does work ok. I did have to open it up
and tighten up some loose screws.
Years ago I bought a packet TNC from them. It did not work and I sent it
back , about 2 days after I called them, they had another unit at my house
and told me to send the old one to them. Any electronic unit can arive DOA,
but they did the very best getting me a new one. No problems with that unit
for as long as I used it.

As others have mentioned , just open the new MFJ up and tighten up all the
screws before using it.

I