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Reviews For: MFJ-994BRT TUNER, AUTO, REMOTE, 600W, 1.8-30 MHZ

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : MFJ-994BRT TUNER, AUTO, REMOTE, 600W, 1.8-30 MHZ
Reviews: 31MSRP: 399.95
Description:
Remote IntelliTuner is mounted in a durable hard plastic case that measures 9 ¼" x 3" x 14 ¼". Covers 1.8 to 30 MHz, have heavy duty 16 Amp / 1000 Volt relays and are a highly efficient L-network. It also includes the MFJ-4117 BiasTee Power Injector to send DC/RF down your coax.
Handles 600 Watts SSB/CWpower level and is said to matche 12-800 Ohm antennas.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-994BRT
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00313.1
WV2M Rating: 2013-02-03
Works Well But Coax Quality Must Be Good Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
The MFJ-994BRT tunes my Hygain multiband DX-88 quickly and I can obtain a less than 2:1 SWR at all portions of the various bands. After a few days of operation I did experience high noise on the receive signal (> s9) when returning from transmit. Sometimes it sounded like static crashes and other times sounded like steady RFI. I also experienced spontaneous retuning during transmit using high power (>100 watts.)

At first I though the high noise level was due to a problem in my transceiver but I noticed that the noise did not occur when I turned off the 12 V DC BiasTee injector that powers the tuner. I then disconnected the coax from the tuner and turned on the BiasTee and noticed that the receiver noise reappeared!

I deduced that the noise was due to an intermittent DC short in the coax cable going to the tuner and that the spontaneous retuning could be due to low voltages reaching the tuner (more than 250 feet of coax) because of the DC short. I traced the issue to a damaged section of coax cable. I replaced the cable section and it worked well again with no noise or retunes.

However, after a few more weeks I noticed that the same receiver noise and retunes started up again. This time I traced it to a poor solder job I did on a PL259 connector that I installed to splice in the replaced cable section.
K7DRT Rating: 2013-01-26
Tuner range inadequate & unreliable Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I bought mine used. To make a long story short:It is a poor tuner when compared to other makes. I have tried everything but it is not reliable. Antennas my Icom AH-4 or my Elecraft K3 can tune well & realiably this tuner cannot. And when it does tune it sometimes loses it's tuning & my solid state amp faults. I even shielded the inside of the covers, & performed resets. It is much better than when I first received it. But not good enough. 73 de Dave
K6PLR Rating: 2013-01-20
Follow up Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
As stated in my Sept. 8, 2012 review, I thought this tuner was great. Having said that, I found tuning 40 meters to be a problem. All other bands were flat or close. This weeks weather in So. Cal has been like summer, so I decided today was the day to try to improve performance of my antenna and tuner. The short of it is I eventually added 30 feet of wire for a total of 95 feet in inverted L fashion. That did the trick and the MFJ-994brt is now tuning flat 80-10 meters with 25 to 600 watts applied. I use it on AM at 150 watts.
Grant-K6PLR
Carlsbad, CA
GW4GOQ Rating: 2012-10-11
Unreliable Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Further to my last post I can confirm with other comments that the tuner is unreliable, retuning in the middle of a QSO certainly upsets a Linear Amp.

I intend to use reliable trapped dipoles which are stable and don't randomly change impedance in the future.
KH6SAT Rating: 2012-10-10
Can't Trust It Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've had my tuner for a couple days. Despite warnings to the contrary, I went ahead and bought the 994BRT. after running it for a couple days, I noticed that sometimes it decided not to tune or, sometimes it would detune. I wanted to do some resetting but to do that, you have to take the tuner apart to access controls. On the last day of use, I got it pretty stable but it would never tune on 30, 40, or 80 meters. This is when I decided to take it off line. Next stop, SGC.
KJ3P Rating: 2012-10-03
Works fine, no frills Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I've used the 994BRT for a few months now, feeding only 100 watts to a SuperLoop80. I have always tuned it with ten watts, never hitting it "cold" with 100 watts. This particular antenna needs only moderate tuning, so this is a very non-challenging setup for a tuner. Under these conditions, the tuner has worked with no problems. I'll soon be running it with 500-600 watts, so I may need to amend this review!

It works automatically, with absolutely no user input available or needed. This might have been a poor choice for a control freak (like me), but I'm learning to trust it. I really miss having the complete visual feedback provided by my trusty MFJ-993 (300-watt auto-tuner) which I replaced with the 994BRT. The 993 is a fine product; I used it for years with no problems. I believe there's a market for a remote tuner with a control head/indicator back in the shack. For me, it would be worth the extra cost and extra wiring.

Significant inconvenience: the plastic cover partially blocks access to the RF in/out coax jacks, making it difficult to tighten/loosen PL-259s. Poor design.

Safety problem: The long-wire standoff with wing nut is live, even if you're only using coax in/out. An internal jumper would have solved this. Poor design.

Loose parts: A half-inch piece of stiff wire was lodged (inside) near the RF input connector. It could have easily shaken loose and shorted something. Does MFJ put loose stuff inside their products just to bait us?!

Before I bought this MFJ, I confess that I called LDG to be sure that they didn't make a remote tuner; they don't. But they said maybe next spring(?). Couldn't wait that long.
WB9JOX Rating: 2012-10-02
poor quality control. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
What I dont understand ,what happened with quality control?This is terrible.With all the problems there should be 4 year warranty on this tuner. Same with 998 brt remote tuner.
K2PAL Rating: 2012-09-01
Very disappointed as this could produce? Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
How I told myself do not buy from MFJ.
How you can feel when you turn on the tuner first time, and he was dead.
I had to unscrew the 10 screws with this stupid black box.In the sun, it's good :-( that you can not find the white plastic?
When I opened, I will see that the small board screwed very high.
And when you close the top cover closes a small switch.
And I had to drop down the board.Sockets 259 swirling in a plastic cover why?
And of course when tightening the antenna size sockets they unscrew.We must send them all and let them return the money.Why we payed $400 for what?
Garbage.
G7VJR Rating: 2012-02-18
Not very capable tuner Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Although attractively priced and rated for legal power here in the UK, I am quite disappointed. The MFJ 994-BRT cannot tune my antenna on 160m, 40m or 10m - but my SGC tuner does so readily, as does the Elecraft K3 built in tuner from the shack. I think this is probably an issue I can solve by adding or removing length from the vertical wire I'm tuning.

Build quality is so-so. One of the SO-259 sockets is loose on mine, and the physical layout of the connectors is inconvenient on the casing. As one of the other reviews says, some details about this tuner make it hard to recommend.
K6ILG Rating: 2012-01-30
do your home work regarding specs Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Having used the sgc-230 rated at 200 watts on my hy-tower for 160 operation i wanted to move up to the mfj 994brt 600 watt remote to match my als-600, that was a mistake the mfj didnt have near the range necessary to tune 160 after talking to tech people at mfj it was clear that the sgc 230 was a better choice and for the time being ill run 100 watts.