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write your own review of the MFJ-971.
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SWDUNCAN
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Rating: 2/5
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Aug 8, 2006 05:45
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useless for QRP
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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As a tuner, it's just fine, but even in the 6 watt sensitivity and switched to the 6 watt range, the forward power is very inaccurate. I was looking for a tuner that would work with my FT-817ND. The tuner is in the "return mode" as I write this review. How this can be sold as a QRP tuner is beyond me. The following is a response to my inquiry from MFJ tech. dept.:
"the 971 meter can only register accurate at six watts. any power below that
will be inaccurate due to the six watt limitation to the tuner. it can be
recalibrated but anything below six watts is still going to be inaccurate.
thanks for your business."
Seems to me, a 6 watt scale should be able to measure .5 watts to a max of 6 watts.
scott
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W2RDD
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 6, 2006 16:21
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So far, so good
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I've only had it a very short time but must say that, to date, I am very pleased with it. Tunes my far from resonant Buddistick much better than my MFJ 941E, better even than my recently deceased old Nye Viking tuner. Now, I run no more than 20 watts to it from an Argonaut and an SG-2020. Frankly, as it is sold as, essentially, a QRP tuner, I keep the output at a conservative 20 watt level and use the 941E with my boatanchor. This is a great tuner for travel and fits nicely in my Pelican case along with the SG-2020. MFJ cannot be faulted for this product.
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KE5GFJ
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 27, 2006 09:23
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Great little tuner
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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One of my "Elmers" gave me this little tuner. It came from the estate of a silent key. I first tried it with a 75 foot end-fed copper wire up in the mountains at 8500 ft elevation. This little tuner would tune the wire for almost any band! 40 and 20 meters tuned out perfectly. The lower bands needed a longer wire but I was still able to make some good QSOs even on 75/80 meters. I brought it home and connected it to an 85 foot length of guy wire (end fed) and insulated the guy wire on both ends. Works great with 100 watts. The small size is very handy for travel or if you have limited space in the shack.
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2E1EMK
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Rating: 5/5
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Dec 18, 2005 03:25
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works ok
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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i have owned one of these for approx.2yrs now bought it used.I have tried it on wires,dipoles,doublets and different aerials on the car have never had a problem with it falling apart as other MFJ reviewers report have always been able to get a match.
It has been used mainly with an ft817 and an alinco dx70 upto 50w no problem so cant comment on how much power it will take,its pretty and it works!
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2E1RDX
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Rating: 5/5
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Nov 20, 2005 03:58
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Superb
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Time owned: months
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I have been using this little tuner to tune a Full size G5RV with Balanced feeder straight into the tuner and it tunes it from 10m to 80m no problem I also use it to take the swr down on my Beam when operating PSK 31 and it does both jobs without any fuss the only down side is that it has no through setting otherwise works great
Ian
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DG8VE
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Rating: 1/5
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Dec 13, 2004 08:38
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200W? No way!
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I bought the MFJ 971 for QRP. But I've chosen this one, because of its capabilities up to 200W. But with my TS520SE with 30W output, no way. The 30W burnt the Inductance switch, with the power switch switched to 300W. Really awful!
As I said, good performance for QRP here 4 out of 5. But overall a clear1 out of 5!
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KB3JLZ
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Rating: 5/5
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Sep 20, 2004 09:16
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Works fine!
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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Bought mine "used" on ebay to go with my SGC-2020. This guy works really well! So far, it has loaded up anything I have thrown at it. from verticals to a doublet with 300ohm ratshack twinlead. No sweat! I just make some notes as to the settings for the band/freq and use that as a guestimation for the next time.
Only thing I would like to see is a bypass switch. Makes it kinda fussy when I use my MP1 portable screwdriver. Need to see the meters but I can get the swr pretty darn close with the MP1.
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K7VO
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Rating: 4/5
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Sep 15, 2004 21:55
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Small, convenient tuner. Construction isn't great.
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I bought the MFJ 971 when I picked up a Patcomm PC-9000, a rig capable of putting out 40W, a couple of months ago. The Mizuho KX-QRP tuner I was using (brilliant--see my review under QRP accessories) only handles 10W through power. The Patcomm rig is gone but the MFJ tuner is a keeper.
The MFJ-971 is a nice, small package with a lighted cross-needle SWR meter built in. Rated maximum through power is 200W. It's a conventional T-match design and so far I haven't found anything I can't tune with it. The meter has three scales: 300W, 30W, and 6W. A push button switch on the back of the tuner selects between 30W maximum and one of the other two scales. Two internal jumpers are used to set that second scale to either 6W or 300W with the latter being the default. The meter is roughly an accurate in an "in the ballpark" sort of way. For checking SWR it's fine. A precision instrument it's not. Frequency range of this tuner is 1.8-30MHz. If you need 6m capability you should consider either a larger tuner or something like the Mizuho KX-S9.
The MFJ 971 is designed to stack in a bracket with their HF QRP rigs and D-cell power pack. It can also be used stand alone and it's a good looking piece either way.
The tuner has inputs for coax, wire, or balanced line antennas. You can only use one antenna with this tuner unless you have a separate antenna switch. There is no switch built in. There is also no bypass switch: the tuner is always in line. When you have an antenna that is resonant somewhere you want to operate this is a bit unfortunate.
All in all the tuner is easy and quick to operate. I did take a look at the internal construction when I opened it up to change the aforementioned jumpers and this thing looks like a kit inside, and one that wasn't put together terribly well at that. The cheesy construction and lack of a bypass switch force me to rate it no more than a "4".
Considering the going price (under $100 new, about $60 used) this isn't a bad choice. The small size and the cross needle meter make it ideal for portable operation if your rig doesn't have a built-in SWR meter.
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GM6LYJ
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Rating: 4/5
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Jun 26, 2004 11:43
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Good Little Tuner
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I have found this to be a good little tuner, it is my first. When I went HF after 22 years on VHF I needed a tuner and SWR meter, this proved a very ecconomical answer, and it has tuned most lengths of wire I have thrown at it, both mobile and homebase. Like another review here I found within a week that one of the capacitor tuning knobs was rough feeling, plus it was arcing internally, I opened the box to find that the red positive wire from the internal lamp was rubbing on the vains of the antenna capacitor as it was adjusted and had worn through. Potentially disasterous, but moved the wire asside and used a hot glue gun the fix the wire into a better position, "BE WARNED IT'S WORTH CHECKING", overall though a good buy, I would certainly buy more from this company
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WB4TJH
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Rating: 4/5
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Jan 1, 2004 22:03
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ok, but check inside first
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I use the lttle 971 with my HW-9 and other qrp radios. It is a bit touchy, but loads most anything very well. HOWEVER...When I first got it it would abruptly change readings during certain positions of one of the tuning capacitors and I could hear a grating noise inside the unit.Two capacitor plates were shorting out during rotation. Obviously some klutz had bent them during assembly. It took a while of rebending to align the properly, and since then the unit has worked OK. But MFJ, while offering some amazing accessories, sure needs to upgrade its quality control.
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