| K7SHR |
Rating:  |
2022-10-17 | |
| Amazing! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have found that the MFJ-1026 works amazingly well in the fight against local, electronic noise. There have been times I couldn't have operated without it. I am grateful for the device.
Here are some hints that may help you get the most out of the unit:
If you have a “waterfall display” on your rig, set it up so that you can see the noise. Sometimes on a ham band you see only a small portion of the total noise profile. If you set the display for a wide sweep (1 MHz), you can sometimes get a better view of the noise.
The MFJ-1026 won't work unless the noise hitting the unit is the same amplitude from both the Main and Auxiliary (noise) antennas. Here is the general concept (the MFJ-1026 Instruction Manual is more complete):
1) Make sure you hear or see (on the waterfall display) the noise.
2) Turn on the MFJ-1026.
3) Turn the Main Antenna Gain to maximum. Turn Auxiliary Antenna Gain to minimum. Take note of the signal strength of the noise coming from the Main antenna. (Say it's S9.)
4) Turn the Main Antenna Gain to minimum. Turn Auxiliary (noise) Antenna Gain to maximum. Take note of the signal strength of the noise coming from the Auxiliary (noise) antenna. (Say it's S7.)
5) So, the noise from the Main antenna alone is S9 and the noise from the Auxiliary noise antenna alone is S7. You now have to adjust down the gain on the Main antenna so that the noise there is also at S7 to match the noise level from the Auxiliary (noise) antenna, by doing the following:
6) Turn Auxiliary Antenna Gain to minimum. Turn up the gain on the Main Antenna Gain to the point that the noise is at S7.
7) Now turn up the gain on the Auxiliary antenna to maximum, which you determined in Step 4 is S7 at maximum gain. The noise hitting the MFJ-1026 will now be the same amplitude (S7) from both antennas.
8) The Pre-Amp can also help you match noise levels. Refer to the Instruction Manual.
9) Watch the waterfall display, and listen to the noise.
Slowly and completely sweep from end-to-end the Phase control knob while trying every different combination of the FREQ and PHASE buttons. You can also tweak the Main Antenna Gain, but try to leave the Auxiliary Antenna Gain on or close to maximum - you shouldn't have to change either gain control too much at this point. You should find a combination that nulls the noise.
If you paid attention to these steps, you realize that you want the gain control on the antenna that is receiving the lowest level of noise (usually the Auxiliary antenna) to be as high as possible. The gain control of the remaining antenna, which is receiving the noise the loudest, will then be adjusted down to match the noise level of the other antenna. You may need to tweak both gain controls along with the Phase control, but you MUST find a null on the Phase control to confirm that nulling is taking place.
If you think you've found the null, turn only the Phase control completely back and forth. This should bring the noise up and down. By confirming with the Phase control, you avoid simply turning down the gain controls and fooling yourself into thinking you are reducing noise when you are actually just reducing gain. The Phase control will keep you honest.
Read other reviews here in for excellent hints and suggestions from other "MFJ-1026 believers." Also check out online the simple relay modification that grounds the noise antenna on transmit. |
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| NF0G |
Rating: |
2022-01-08 | |
| I am back on the air |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Something from one of the neighbors is wiping everything out with an S9+ buzz on 40 meters after dark. I pretty much given up until I found this. It took some time for me to understand how it worked but when I got it set up it correctly it almost completely eliminated the noise. I just need to get the modification done so I can run it with an amplifier (looks simple enough) and I will have a great solution. I am very happy with how this works. |
|
| KD8OPI |
Rating: |
2021-08-15 | |
| Yes it works, but my exp. in how to make it work great. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Well, I think One of the best things that you can say about any piece of equipment is that it does what it supposed to do. In that regard, I think the 1026 it’s pretty good.
My story is not much different than what other people write on this board. But let me share a few wrinkles of my experience, maybe it can help you.
I have an end-fed half wave (EFHW) that I was able to string up fairly high (50’) and in the clear, and I was so disappointed after I dialed it when I found a decent amount of unknown, grinding/variable RFI noise on 20, 15, and 10 m. It peaks on 15 m at S4-5, that’s with the preamp off. Preamp on, it’s S9. On 20 m, the noise is only at about an S3-S4 level, but that wipes out weak signals. Thankfully, on 40m there is no noise at all.
I put up a noise antenna; but as I’ve had some experience with the 1026 for over a decade, I made it a useful, 41 ft vertical hanging up from a tree coming into my second story shack. I have a 9 to 1 unun so it can better match the antenna tuner. As a result, I have a nice little “random wire”. vertical that I can tune and operate on all bands in addition to the end foot half wave. Keep reading you’ll see why this is important or at least useful.
With the decent vertical antenna as my noise antenna, I can null out the S3-4 noise on 20m completely. It also has a wonderful affect of boosting the desired signal by one S level. I think that some of this is not only because of the phasing, but also the benefit of a good antenna as your “noise” antenna. The 1026’s uncelebrated feature is that it effectively gives you diversity receive. In my case, I’m getting the signal in on a 41 foot vertical and on a resonant EFHW at the same time. The result is that when I hear a station that is S5 to S6 with an S3 background noise with the 1026 off, flipping it on kills the grinding noise, boosts the signal to S7, and now I hear the weak S1-2 stations calling in the background.
It’s bananas impressive.
All right, so what isn’t so impressive is that my vertical antenna does not pick up the noise on 15 m to the degree the EFHW does. Part of the reason is because on 15 m, it’s Impedance is crazy high. But, when I switch the vertical from a noise antenna to being my primary antenna, and use the antenna tuner to match it, the noise almost equals what I get in the EFHW. Then, if I run the EFHW as my “noise” antenna, the 1026 kills the noise completely, and I’m using the vertical on 15 meters. Sure, this is a compromise because I’m not using my EFHW and it’s associated no-tune 1.2 SWR and broadside gain that’s gotta be at least 3dB higher than the Vertical; but, because I took the time to put up a decent secondary antenna I’m on 15 m without any noise are doing fairly well.
Let’s take this one step further. When I put an inexpensive matching unit/antenna tuner in line with the Vertical antenna, then send it to the 1026 as the noise antenna, i’ve been able to null the noise And use my more efficient EFHW with its broadside gain to full effect.
So, in summary, the biggest piece of advice I can give operators is not to treat the “noise” Antenna as if it’s a piece of garbage. Putting in a low cost, but decent, secondary antenna that can be tuned for any band goes a long way in boosting the 1026’s capabilities- not only in terms of nulling and boosting, But also With an unintended positive consequence of diversity receive especially if it is polarized differently than your main antenna.
I will add one thing, constructive criticism for MFJ. This unit has been around for decades. It’s “cheap“, only compared to the DX engineering alternative. This is got to be one of MFJ’s more popular receiving accessories, it would be great if they could update this product; they’ve updated other products over the years (their T/R switch to plug in an SDR as a pan adapter is a great example of this), and they could do the same with the 1026. |
|
| KU7I |
Rating: |
2021-01-12 | |
| Total game changer for certain types of noise |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I use vertical antennas at this QTH and most of my operating is on the low bands. This MFJ noise cancelling device really takes the noise down. I was looking at the one offered by DX Engineering but it is over 3X the price. They all use the same technology so why bother?
There are two types of noise at my QTH, one is a locally generated steady noise that sounds like a bad power line transformer. When it acts up, my receive noise on the low bands is a steady 59 + 20. This device completely takes it out, It is utterly amazing. There is also some other types of noise that are similar but not as strong but are also a steady, constant noise that this also works on....perfectly. It does NOT do anything with atmospheric noise such as distant storm fronts. Having SO-239 connectors on the back of the unit is nice. It also has a dedicated relay jack for muting it on transmit which is also a nice touch. The controls could use reduction drives but does not adversely affect the user from being successful. It is built surprisingly well for being MFJ. I am not a fan of MFJ but I do have some MFJ products. This one is HIGHLY recommended.
There are three controls that need adjusted, the phase, receive ant gain, and main ant gain. I find it much easier to set the main ant gain at the 50% point and then just alternate back and forth between the receive ant gain and the phase and you WILL find a null if it is the right type of noise. Once you get the null then go ahead and adjust the main ant gain. You have to go back and forth a few times to get the null but it only takes about ten seconds once you get the hang of it. Remember, you are adjusting these controls for a dip or null in the noise so I listen and look at the S meter on the radio while making the adjustments.
There is a phase switch on the front panel that you will have to try enabling if you are not getting a null. There is also a frequency range switch, one is for lower frequencies and the other position is for higher. I only need it on 160-80-40 so I always use it on the "low" position. I think the prices is very reasonable.
It is critical to have a good receive noise antenna. My first antenna was a 12 foot vertical in the front yard which is about 250 feet from my main 62 foot vertical. It did not work on killing the main noise problem which is the 59 +20 QRN that is sometimes there. I have a 53 foot vertical that I am not currently using that is 33 feet from the main 62 footer so I hooked this up as the noise antenna and voila.....perfection.
The noise antenna and main antenna need to have SOME separation in order for there to be a phase difference and this 33 feet of spacing seems to be just fine for my particular noise sources.
Someone in my neighborhood likely has a plasma TV or some other noise generator in their house. Could be multiple computers and dirty switching power supplies as well as their alarm system but this MFJ noise canceller takes this noise all the way down so S-0.
Buy it but remember, you may have to try different noise antennas. It works perfect!!!!! |
|
| W5NM |
Rating: |
2020-11-03 | |
| Problems |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
My MFJ 1026 worked very well, even if it was a little
difficult to adjust. Took care of the noise.
But, the unit eventually failed to switch fast enough
to prevent damage to its internal components.
Called MFJ and the refused to repair the unit
at a reasonable cost.
I found that fast rise times on CW were too quick
for the 1026. I also never operated full break in
or a cw rise time of faster than 4 ms.
I also never exceeded any MFJ specifications in the
instruction manual.
Unfortunately, I have to say that this is more MFJ
junk.
I have thrown a lot of money away over a period of
many years on MFJ products that I had to throw away or repair.
SO Buyer Beware.
From a CW Operator
Carmine W5NM |
|
| K7HN |
Rating: |
2020-11-02 | |
| If you have RFI Issues, The MFJ 1026 WILL KNOCK RFI OUT! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I’ll start by saying that I also have the ANC-4 noise canceller and now have the MFJ 1026. The MFJ 1026 obliterates the ANC-4 in terms of performance in actually “working to knock out the RFI.“
The MFJ 1026 (and 1025) are designed to knock out QSO killing RFI from inside your home or outside. It comes with a whip antenna if your RFI source comes from inside your home.
Just make sure to read the instructions, because you’ll need to change the inside jumper to a different position if you want to use the whip antenna to knock out your RFI issue or an external phase antenna (I used a multiband dipole) to do so.
I wanted the MFJ 1026 because it has a preamp on the phase antenna
Sometimes, RFI can be so high that you need more power to the phase antenna to be able to knock out the RFI that’s killing your receiver.
The MFJ 1025 does not have the preamp. The MFJ 1026 comes with the preamp.
I’ve found this product to be absolutely ESSENTIAL To knock out my repeating S6 - S9 RFI problem.
I first checked to make sure the RFI source wasn’t coming from inside my home. It wasn’t.
So I called my power company thinking it was coming from the transformer box in front of my home.
They send a technician out with directional antennas to source out the RFI offender.
In my case, the RFI source was my neighbors waterfall volume pump controller! It made using 6 m impossible and placed repetitive loads of RFI on every band from 160-6.
The power company technician said it was the worst case of RFI they’d ever seen. The RFI could be “heard” for over 2 square blocks.
I was able to use the MFJ 1026 successfully to return the band to normal and remove ALL of the RFI coming from my neighbors backyard pump controller.
I made a video that shows how to use it and shows how bad my RFI was. Here’s that video. It will show you how to use the product and how excessive my RFI problem used to be.
https://youtu.be/KsGkPZfuqDA
I’ve never used a product for ham radio I needed more to really work then this one did.
If you have any RFI issues… You need the MFJ 1026. It simply WORKS. |
|
| G7PKG |
Rating: |
2020-10-21 | |
| It works..... |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I suffer horrendous noise from a neighbour of mine who has a "hobby business" printing onto various materials. They are really good friends and have never moaned about my antennas or mast so I didn't feel it was good to complain. It is not on 24/7 and only effects my inverted "L" antenna. A friend of mine was selling his 1026 because it didn't work for him but offered to lend it to me to see how I got on with it. I was amazed at how well it removed my noise problem and I brought it off him for a very good price....
MFJ often means "more flaming junk" but in this case I can not recomend it enough.. |
|
| AC1DR |
Rating: |
2020-03-07 | |
| Operates as Expected |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I am not normally an advocate of MFJ products due to less than robust designs, poor assembly quality, and poor final test guard-banding and inspection. However, I must say, the MFJ-1026 operates as expected and exceeded my expectations. The unit has fundamentally two modes, "Null" mode and "Peaking" mode. "Null" mode works well on local sources of noise, eg. power line noise, etc. with constant phase. I have observed a reduction of 3-5 S-units of noise, when nulling noise between the auxillary antenna and the main antenna (or receive antenna) for local power line related noise. The unit will not null out random sky-wave noise or "white noise". However, when null mode does not work, sometimes "peaking" mode will significantly improve readability of weak signals. "Peaking" mode adds the signals "in-phase" from both the auxillary antenna and the main antenna (sort of diversity receive mode). The result is both the Signal and noise increase in signal strength. However, more often than not, the desired signal can become louder and more readable.
Often, I have observed a 3-6 dB increase in both signal and noise strength. Most amazing. The unit must be carefully tweaked to get the desired results.
However, for certain noise sources, the results are impressive. |
|
| VK2CRB |
Rating: |
2019-08-10 | |
| Build a Monument to MFJ !!!!!! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
After 20 years of HF a friend gave me a TS930S. Ignited by nostalgia got a Comet CHA 250B, fixed the Kenwood and.................in 40 and 20 metres I had 9 or 9.5dB of noise.
After reading lots of things regarding MFJ decided to buy the MFJ 1026. I got it from Gigaparts from USA (those guys are 15 out of 10 !).
Just 20 minutes ago here in Sydney Australia, I tested the 1026 for first time.
I always suspected 3KV AC lines not far from home that may be the drama.
So Comet CHA 250B and Kenwood tuned to 7190 Khz. Noise 9.5 dB, horrendous. Using the inbuilt short antenna and pre amp of the MFJ 1026..........it went down to 2.5dB noise !!!!!!!!!!!!
BUILD A MONUMENT !!!!!!!!!!!! MFJ you bloody rock !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So is the MFJ 969. That company is clever !!!!!!!!! |
|
| KW4CQ |
Rating: |
2019-03-20 | |
| Great on 80m but not other bands |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I've had my MFJ 1026 in operation now for the past two months. My sense (noise) antenna is a 100 foot longwire stretched between my 2nd floor hamshack and a six foot support. This wire runs in parallel with my Main antenna which is an all band wire OCFD at 60 feet above ground. My results so far on 75/80m has been phenomenal at reducing the noise from my local power lines when it rains around here. My noise level (a constant hash sound) on 75/80m is S9+15 dB. My carefully tweaking the MFJ 1026 the noise drops way down to an S3. On the 10-40m bands I cannot get any noise reduction at all with the 1026. No amount of tweaking seems to work. If anyone has any suggestions on how to improve this situation I would be delighted to hear from you.
73,
KW4CQ |
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