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write your own review of the MFJ 969.
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KC2SRZ
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Rating: 0/5
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Oct 11, 2008 06:25
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P.O.S. OUT OF BOX
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have to give this tuner a 0 rating based solely on MY experience with it. It is possible that I recieved a lemon from the factory and that other units work well, but I'll never know.
Upon opening the box when it arrived at my house, I was impressed with the way the tuner looks. Very nice to look at and feels sturdy.
However, when I hooked it up to my Yaesu FT-920, that's when the love affair came to a screeching halt.
The "Roll Inductor" knob was tight. It even has the little dimple on it to turn with one finger. I guess that was put there as wishfull thinking, because in order to turn this puppy, you have to grab the entire knob and rotate with your whole hand.
And turn and turn you must. There is a 3 digit counter on the face of the tuner and depending on what band you are on, you have to turn this knob until that # reaches a certain range.
It takes forever. And if you switch bands a lot, (like I do) I hope you have a strong wrist. Because you're going to be working that tight fat knob all day.
Oh and did I mention the tuner didn't even tune???
Zilch, nada, nothing.
I'm not even sure if the insides were connected when it left the manufacturer.
I purchased the unit from R&L Electronics and sent it back the same day it arrived.
I had originally bought this tuner, because it covered 6 meters thru HF, but when I sent it back to R&L, I asked for a full refund. I purchased a MFJ-949E and an MFJ-903 instead.
That would cover all my 6m-HF needs for now.
From my previous experience the 949E is a classic MFJ workhorse. This newer 969 is a dud.
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KI4ESN
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Rating: 5/5
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Jun 28, 2008 13:44
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A great tuner for the price.
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Time owned: 3 to 6 months
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I got this tuner last Christmas and I have been well pleased with its operation. I have made several contacts outside of the US as well as quite a few in the US and it has worked great every time. Prior to my buying this tuner I read the reviews here and read a lot of good ones and some bad ones on this tuner but I decided to try it for myself and I was not disappointed. The price and what you get for it is a bargain.
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G4ICB
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Rating: 3/5
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Nov 4, 2007 11:08
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OK but slow to adjust
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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It's big, it's built like a tank but it does work ok(well mine does anyway!) But it's slow and tedious to adjust. Why use one of these when you can get an auto ATU? I prefer my MFJ993B,no comparison.
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G0KDJ
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Rating: 1/5
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Oct 23, 2007 22:36
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Sad Effort.
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Very dissapointed with the quality build and action of what appears to be a roller coaster inductor. I appreciate newness can sometimes attribute to stiffness, but from the outset this action is dreadful.
All comments below relate to the roller coaster knob and build quality.
1/Finger cup wobbles about in it's recess within the roller inductor knob.
2/ When turning the roller intuctor knob it has inconsistant weight resistance with no free roll what so ever
3/ Grinding sound and course movement.
4/ Uncomfortable and impossible to get a steady turn rate.
5/ Regarding a wearing in period, I feel this product would wear out before then.
On the upside, this tuner does does tune the antenna.
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KE5HJO
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Rating: 4/5
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Jul 5, 2007 19:08
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Get One
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I echo those with good experiences. However, I did have to work on mine as the tuner stopped tuning and the inductor knob became very difficult to turn. I opened it up and resolved the issue. In a nut shell, I have a fix for the stiff knob problem if anyone is interested.
I'd purchase another one.
Mike
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KC9KSA
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Rating: 5/5
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Apr 18, 2007 16:25
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The MFJ969 is a very good unit for someone on a budget.
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I have been out of ham radio for 30 years and I didn't know any of the current brands of equipment. I had a limited budget and I did look at the reviews for the MFJ969 and I was a little concerned at some of the reviews. I bought the tuner and its working just fine. No loose parts, paint is ok. I can turn the roller inductor with one finger (However, it does not turn as easy as a VFO dial on a transceiver). The SWR/power meters work just fine. No arcing on 100 watts. It does take a little practice to learn how to tune my multi band dipole. The 3 digit counter on the roller inductor is very accurate and repeatable.
I feel that this is a good buy for a tight budget and you want the added tuning ability of the roller inductor.
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K3EY
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Rating: 5/5
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Jul 23, 2006 15:32
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A Real Bargain Lets get Real
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Time owned: more than 12 months
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I have had several of these tuners as my station changed from over a KW station back to 100 watt station which is the case now. I noticed the first production runs had a few minor issues but nothing that was worth complaining about considering the small amount of money spent and the service you get. The 969 I own now was purchased new the first of the year. It works as advertised with zero issues.
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KM6DE
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Rating: 0/5
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Jul 23, 2006 13:19
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JUN K!
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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I bought this new, and it was bad out of the box. The rolling inductor did not function at all-no meter movement whatsoever when adjusting the inductor from one end to the other (I am convinced that it wasn't even connected internally, but did not want to open it because I took it back). Also, it was so hard to turn that you had to use one hand to hold the tuner down to keep the whole box from moving when you turned the inductor dial. The power meter had poor connections because it would work one moment, then would not move at all the next moment. Workmanship was bad as well (scratches on the box, rubber feet glued on crooked, etc.). Never completed one successful tune. Took it back for a full refund & bought a fully-automatic LDG AT-100 PRO (which, by the way, works great & also allows manual tuning) for only $10 more. I will NEVER buy anything from MFJ again. KM6DE
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K4KKJ
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Rating: 0/5
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Dec 14, 2005 15:22
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Save your cash !
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Time owned: 6 to 12 months
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I bought my MFJ-969 new from MFJ in May of this year. I intended to replace an aging AEA ET-1 tuner with a better tuner. This was a bad plan . The AEA is back on line, and the MFJ is on a shelf junked out. I will not even bother to send it back to have it checked out. Lesson learned. The tuner would not tune my 80 dipole fed with homebrew balanced line . It does not seem to like balanced line antennas . The AEA tuner tunes the same antenna flat with no problems. It also would not tune my coax fed dipole as eaisly or as flat as the old AEA. NO more MFJ products for me. I am planing on buying a Palstar ATK1M as my next tuner shortly . It is about $100 higher but who cares, you get what you pay for. I should have bought the Palstar to start with !
73's
K4KKJ
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GM7USC
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Rating: 5/5
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Aug 8, 2005 10:28
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MFJ 969
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Time owned: 0 to 3 months
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Well, I just recently recieved mine and the only thing that i can say on doing a visual QC was that the 4:1 balun was loose no poor solder joints etc for that i can't knock a full point as that may have been due to transit. It only took two seconds to tighten it up. otherwise it unes my G5RV quicker and to a 1:1 on all bands. The item I really like about this tuner is the actice watt meter on SSB, very nice to see an indicated 100 watts from my FT 857. i used the presets in the manual and found them to be a good starting point, the settings for my situation weren't far from them. So can't say that i'm dissapointed with the ATU at all it certainly does what it say on the box. I was even able to tune the G5RV up on 6 meter's but I know have nearly completed the installation of my 6 meter delta. So looking forward to getting going on six over the next few days.
Gary G(M)7USC
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