|
New to Ham Radio?
My Profile
Community
Articles
Forums
News
Reviews
Friends Remembered
Speak Out
Strays
Survey Question
Operating
Contesting
DX Cluster Spots
Propagation
Resources
Calendar
Classifieds
Ham Exams
Ham Links
List Archives
News Articles
Product Reviews
QSL Managers
Site Info
eHam Help (FAQ)
Support the site
The eHam Team
Advertising Info
Vision Statement
About eHam.net
|
|
You can
write your own review of the MFJ 1026 Noise & Interference Canceler.
|
KG0WX
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Nov 8, 2009 10:36
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Works great!
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
N4HNH (see his review earlier) nailed it! This device DOES work and work WELL (an MFJ???). Just follow the directions.
I'd like to add to what has been written so far:
1) Turn the Phase control SLOWLY (1 rpm) otherwise you might miss the sweet spot.
2) Your AUX (noise) antenna MUST hear the noise!
3) Set jumper 1 and forget using the built in antenna unless your main antenna is equally small (like for indoor antennas, etc).
4) If all you have for QRM is a little static, this might not be for you - the device will work better when you have a BIG QRM problem.
I bought mine to try to get rid of S1 power line buzz on AM only - not much of a problem so finding the sweet spot was difficult for me. However, I found I could eliminate WWV so much that it went from S9+20 down to S ZERO! (just a test) Oh, by the way a fading QRM is MUCH harder to get tuned to. This unit will be easiest to use on local QRM. If you've got TV/PC/Etc noise this will work GREAT.
What is neat is that I could now hear Spanish speaking stations that were under WWV (10Mhz) so it really does let you kill QRM and still hear what you want.
Impressive.
Oh, one last point - do NOT transmit into this unit unless you use the PTT line between your rig and the MFJ 1026. I've read enough of the reviews here and elsewhere to indicate that the internal RF sensed switch is only about %40 reliable so if you use it, expect to blow your 1026 one day.
Ken KG0WX
|
|
G1DRP
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Nov 7, 2009 10:53
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Fantastic! I can enjoy my hobby again.
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
I have the MFJ-1025, which I bought from Waters and Stanton. It arrived within 24 hours of placing my order and I couldn't wait to try it out on 80 Meters.
I use a Degen active loop as my "noise" antenna and my 80 Meter loop as my main antenna. I have suffered from broadband noise since January this year, which is radiated by telephone lines. The 1025 has totally eliminated this noise and now, I can hear the VMARS AM net on 3615KHz again.
5/5 in my opinion. I would have scored 6/5, if I could! The only let down is the absence of a mains power supply. I shall build myself a mains filtered, regulated mains power supply as soon as I have the time.
I have used it with my National HRO MX and my Marconi R1155A, with excellent results.
Well done and thank you MFJ!
73,
Ian G1DRP
|
|
KD6FAB
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Oct 11, 2009 08:31
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Absolutely Saved the Hobby for Me
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
|
WOW!! Absolutely amazing!! I live in an area in Los Angeles where there are lots of TV/Film industry people living, and they all have plasma TV's. My next door neighbor is a screen writer and a HUGE sports fan, and he has a plasma that's on constantly. The hash emitted from this beast covers 30m, 20m and 17m from top to bottom in S9 hash. If I get up and operate at 4 a.m. it's nirvana, nothing but blissful atmospheric noise and Q5 copy until the plasma monster next door lights up my S meter at 6:00am. At that point I'm done for the day. Enter this amazing tool. For a noise antenna I made a 50' end fed OCF "dipole" (often called a "No Counterpoise Antenna") from twin lead and placed it in my attic on the offending neighbors side. This antenna hears the plasma TV's in the neighborhood quite well. With this setup I am now able to COMPLETELY remove any and all plasma interference from anywhere in the neighborhood, especially the beast next door. With this device working I now have my 4:00am conditions all day long. The 1026 is the most useful tool I've had in my shack in a long time! A MUST for anyone dealing with plasma TV interference.
|
|
KB1KGA
|
Rating: 4/5
|
Jul 28, 2009 10:54
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Quite impressive
|
Time owned: 0 to 3 months
|
I'm happy with my MFJ 1025. I have terrible power line noise and I can usually null it out to zero so it has changed HF from pretty unusable to quite usable.
As other reviewers have said, it takes some practice and maybe some experimenting with the auxiliary antenna. My current aux antenna is a 1/2 wave dipole for 80m in the trees closest to the power lines, fed with coax. That works okay on 80 but (as expected) not so good on other bands. It would be nice to pickup some more noise so I didn't have to back off the the main antenna level quite so far to get a null.
My main antenna is also a 1/2 wave on 80, further from the power line but much higher and in the clear and fed with open wire line from an auto tuner. It really gets hammered with the noise. I think I'm going to put up a multiband noise antenna over near the power line, perhaps a G5RV. It seems like I could do with some more gain on the aux input so perhaps I should have bought the 1026. I got the 1025 because many reviews suggest that the internal antenna and preamp are not very useful. The fact that I can get a good null indicates that my current aux antenna is delivering a "clean" noise signal so I think gain would help. Am I really missing out on effectively signal to noise ratio by having to back off the main level so far? Maybe, it's hard to tell.
My only reason for the score of 4 rather than the 5 is that the transmit detection / bypass circuit doesn't seem to work for me on 80m. It works fine on other bands. I really need to get the T/R line from my old TS430S hooked up via an opto coupler or something. I didn't bother at first because I don't think the 1025 is as susceptible to damage as the 1026. The manual for the 1026 strongly recommends a T/R line in bold print (twice) but it's not mentioned at all in the 1025 manual other than describing how the T/R input works. Luckily I don't seem to have blown anything up.
|
|
HAMDUDE
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Jun 7, 2009 19:01
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
HF SAVIOR
|
Time owned: 6 to 12 months
|
|
agree 100% with prior reveiw, you have to take the time to work with it. saved hf for me, that's for sure, would recommend to all, but be prepared to take the time to set it up right.
|
|
N4HNH
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Feb 8, 2009 23:10
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
Does the job!
|
Time owned: more than 12 months
|
I'm sitting here looking at an S9+15dB noise level on 80m from electrical noise near the shack. The noise is intermittent and varies from S7 to S9+15 at times. This MFG-1026 has been consistently knocking out the noise for over a year, so I thought I should report my results for those of you who are wondering, as I once was, whether or not to try one.
I've got guys from the West coast coming in at S9 but cannot hear them without the MFJ-1026. But even the guys who are coming in at S9+15-20db have that electrical "buzz" on their audio without the MFJ-1026. When I turn on the MFJ-1026 and null out the noise I am left with only atmospheric noise and everyone is armchair copy.
The people who are bashing this unit simply have not learned how to use it properly or did not set up an adequate noise receiving antenna. I have to admit I am currently just using the supplied telescoping whip antenna and it is doing the job. If you have noise that is being generated by internal sources like computers, light dimmers, etc. the telescoping whip may be enough. But if you need to null out power line noise, you need an external antenna. I took an old G5RV out of mothballs and stuck it up for a noise antenna. I replaced the old wire with some new 14AWG insulated electrical wire and to my surprise I found that sometimes the G5RV actually out performs my OCF dipole. So I use an antenna selector to select which one will be my noise receive antenna and which is my main antenna according to operating conditions.
Note: Be very careful not to accidentally transmit into the MFJ-1026, if you accidentally hook up the antenna selector wrong. Keep the kilowatt away from directly feeding into the MFJ-1026. If you make the mistake I did the internal light bulb that acts as a RF fuse will blow. MFJ was kind enough to send me another very promptly. I wish they would design in a better RF fuse arrangement than the bulb since the bulb isn't easily replaced. They should improve the design to at least make the bulb replaceable without removing the cover. But I've only had to replace it once.
Learn how to use this device and you will be happy. I have my internal jumpers set so the Pre-Amp button selects between internal (telescoping whip) and my external noise antenna. The pre-amp is not necessary. Modern receivers are sensitive enough.
I use these quick steps to null out the noise:
1. Turn all knobs to the left (except leave T/R knob at 2) and set the phase switch to the Normal position.
2. Select the frequency range (above 7Mhz set to High).
3. Adjust the Auxiliary Antenna Gain to approximately half and Select which noise antenna, external or internal receives the noise at the highest S-units. I try to achieve at least 7 S-units of noise. Between S7 and S9 is good.
4. Adjust the Main Antenna Gain to the point where it just begins to cause the S-meter to rise above the S-unit level of the noise antenna.
5. Turn the Phase knob clock-wise slowly until you hear the noise begin to decrease and continue until you find the deepest point of noise reduction. You can watch your S-meter to see the noise level drop to its lowest point and you will also hear the pulses of noise decrease.
6. If step 5 did not null the noise press the Phase switch to select the Invert position and try step 5 again.
7. Once you achieve the best null effect using the Phase knob, make minor plus and minus "fine adjustments" to the Auxiliary and Main knobs to see if you can knock it down a bit more. This "fine-tune" procedure sometimes yields a bit more noise cancellation.
These steps will work. If you still cannot null the noise it means that your auxiliary antenna and your main antenna are not receiving the same noise source.
Note: It is normal for the signal level of received stations to be lower after noise cancellation (between 5 and 10 decibels). This is because you usually end up somewhere between a setting of 4 and 8 on the main antenna level when you have the noise nulled out the most. But forget the S-meter! YOu can hear the stations just fine.
|
|
KJ6EB
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Feb 5, 2009 09:48
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
MFJ-1025 saved 40 meters!
|
Time owned: 3 to 6 months
|
Without the MFJ-1025, I would have had to completely give up 40m due to a massive local noise source that generated intermittent QRN/M. Indeed, unless I was in a QSO with a station with an almost 599 signal, I would lose the contact in the noise. (In fact, the noise becomes so powerful that it would literally begin to severely block my receiver). The 100% solution was the MFJ-1025, which is merely a well thought-out phase/amplitude box that feeds an out-of-phase, but equal in amplitude, signal to then be combined with your main RX/TX antenna’s signals. This allows for the almost complete cancellation of ANY offending signal(s) in a particular direction – IF IT IS ADJUSTED PROPERLY. The “adjusted properly” part is the major problem that some people are dealing with who give this MFJ unit negative reviews. The other issue is that you really cannot compromise too far on the second (noise gathering) antenna’s performance parameters; a proper noise antenna MUST be erected for this unit to function as designed, and it should have *similar* properties as compared to your main RX/TX antenna (gain, polarization, and radiation pattern. Even the wavelength distance from the main RX/TX antenna can be somewhat important). All of these issues are explained quite well in other MFJ-1025/6 reviews (and to a lesser extent in the unit's own manual).
However, the main thing to understand after you have set up the noise antenna is that it will initially take a while to find the “sweet-spot” for proper noise cancellation on your band of interest; as well as the time/experience you will need to learn to be able to quickly and effortlessly phase-out offending noise/QRM sources on-the-fly (if needed).
You must initially adjust five different knobs and push-buttons to correctly phase-out your interference. But after setting these knobs/push-buttons, typically only one knob need ever be slightly tweaked again for that particular band and QRM/N. And as stated elsewhere within some of these Eham reviews, you MUST HAVE PATIENCE in adjusting and learning to use the MFJ-1025 to get it to work as advertised. But believe me, it is worth the effort.
So, if your QRN/M problems are so bad you’re about to give up, then by all means purchase the MFJ-1025/6 -- you can’t really afford NOT to!
|
|
KG4ITA
|
Rating: 5/5
|
Nov 26, 2008 01:14
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
MFJ-1025
|
Time owned: more than 12 months
|
|
Does exactly what MFJ advertises and then some. Need to adjust main antenna gain, auxiliary antenna gain, and phase in order to reach the right combination. Also owned a 1026 with great results. Probably the greatest single improvement I have ever made to my transceiver. Would recommend it to anyone who wants to get better reception with less interference. A very worthy investment!!! :-)
|
|
WA4JM
|
Rating: 3/5
|
Nov 22, 2008 09:22
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
It Works, But....
|
Time owned: more than 12 months
|
Ordered mine from AES in Orlando. It arrived with the telescoping antenna rolling around in the box along with the power connector/cable. The instruction manual from MFJ is useless. It looks like it was written by someone needing special help in school. Thanks to the web and others, the tuning procedure was simplified into a workable situation.
As far as performance goes, it does work and I was able to null out S9+20 line noise down to about S8.
|
|
KD7RDZI2
|
Rating: 4/5
|
Nov 7, 2008 15:35
|
Send this review to a friend
|
|
works very well, could be perfect
|
Time owned: more than 12 months
|
I have been using this noise canceler since MFJ brought it into the market, about ten years ago.
The good of the 1026:
- cancels the directional interfering signal or noise completely in most cases;
- noise blanker I have used removes only particular types of noise. This unit removes all types of noise except atmospheric noise;
- can work with any type of antennas, horizontal, vertical with whatever polerization. I used one vertical and one inverted T2FD with success, as well the T2FD with a small sloper.
The bad:
- it can generate a lot of noise!!!! The two antenna inputs have only a high pass filter to attenuate MW. The inputs have active devices that with wideband antennas overload quite easily the unit. BOTH INPUTS SHOULD HAVE PRESELECTORS IN MY VIEW OR SELECTABLE PASSBAND FILTERS! Using preselectors I solved the issue of overloading.
- it only removes one noise, not all the noises;
- the price nowadays is very high and some solutions can be questionable (eg. the aux input is only partially protected), the active devices are cheap ones, maybe others with a higher ip3 could have been selected.
Overall, in my view, it is an accessory that may allow to hear signals well buried into the noise, killing completely the interfering noise, however it could be even ameliorated.
|
|
If you have any questions, problems, or suggestions about Reviews,
please email your Reviews Manager.
|
|
|
|
|
