Hi Joe,
I have an MFJ 1026 and have finally found a real need. I have really bad noise from 160 M to 20 M. What is not stressed enough is the noise receiving antenna. I put up a small loop in my shack, hung from the ceiling near the walls. (40 ft in length.) the loop feeds the balanced input of a small tuner, which feeds the noise input of the MFJ 1026. This allows me to tune for maximum noise before adjusting the noise gain. It works best on 40 M. The antenna is too short for 80 M i.e. it doesn't pick up enough noise, by the time I get up to 20 M the two antennas hear different noise sources. On 40 M it will give me 3-4 "S" units of relief. It does take some practice, I use the 'S' meter on my Pro II for setting levels. Even with in a band I will have to re-tune occasionally. Finally, I use the relay control in the rig to switch the 1026 in and out of line and I put a disconnect relay on the noise input to protect it's front end from the TX signal. I had never been in a high noise environment before and this device made all the difference.
73,
Rob WA9UAA