| W9OS |
Rating:     |
2019-01-31 | |
| Works !!! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Subject: MFJ-1026 STORY
Just got the noise cancellation box last week.
As you know the unit takes two received signals the inverts one and adds them back together cancelling the noise.
You have a phase adjust to fine tune the cancellation..
They have a whip antenna standard on the receive antenna.
It's not enough you need a good outdoor antenna.
Both inputs, your regular antenna and the receive antenna must bring in equal signals..
Now the problem..
If your running power the receive antenna is putting all sorts of signal into the unit.
They don't shut it off..
Instead the use a 12V 50mA mini light bulb as an indicator and fuse.
The manual says change or move your receive antenna if the light glows of burns out,
Well I blew the bulb on 40.M My receive antenna is a 40M dipole under the 75 M dipole open wire doublet
The manual recommends a T/R switch to open the receive antenna while transmitting. Why open better off grounding.
You think MFJ could have added a cheap ass $2.00 SPST relay to be keyed by your amp T/R box for the receive antenna like the way the do the rig side.
I Found a mod on line..A guy just puts a SPST relay to ground on transmit mode.
This does the trick but one fatal flaw..
His relay only works then the power is on to the unit via the on off switch..Gets power after the switch.
You must keep power to the relay at all times .If not you can overload the receive antenna when you not using the box..
I use power from the 12 V jack in inside.
The box works great..
Better yet my line noise problem went away without the box.
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| KX2T |
Rating:      |
2018-05-02 | |
| It works! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
This is on the MFJ 1025 w/o the pre amp, I have owned this unit for over 2 years, when I first moved into this new QTH I had terrible S9+ noise level which had taken the power company way over six months to fix but this little puppy was able to knock the noise level down to S3.
Today I still use it but mainly for noise I get which is low band specific which is a S7-S8 noise level on 75m, this just never goes away and this unit will phase out this noise below an S3 and at times almost to an S2-3 during the day, this also works good on 160m as well.
I did modify the box with a relay which when you go to transmit disconnects the noise antenna to ground plus ran the noise antenna which is 70' long almost parallel to the electrical lines on the side of my yard but 10' below them. The important thing is to make that antenna the one that pics up the noise that you want to phase out the strongest. You do lose anywhere between 8 to 12db in signal strength on your S meter but the overall improvement in signal to noise on the low bands is fantastic.
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Earlier 4-star review posted by KX2T on 2015-10-13
Since we moved to a new QTH I have been hammered with S9+10 static noise from near by power lines which unless your 20 over 9 its almost impossible to hear anything that's a weak signal. The NB in the radio works but only on a quiet band and once the band get packed it opens up the IF chain for IMD with strong signals near by. I did the research on the MFJ and Timewave but ordered up the MFJ1025(W/O Preamp on the noise antenna), installed a low to ground 135'OCF dipole about 15-20' high for the noise antenna and started to adjust for least noise on all of the bands. It did take some time but there was an excellent You tube by VK3LAJ and Mike Coffey which help allot on how to adjust it. I am able to take almost all the time that S9+ noise and bring it down to S1 without any artifacts, it is simply amazing plus having the adjustment of gain on the noise antenna is what is missing on the TW unit. Now when that noise is not present (when the WX is raining) I use it to lower the band noise from lets say S3 down to S1 so I can really dig into the noise floor when a band just opens.
The only reason I gave it a 4 was its typical MFJ cheaply made and if there is more than $25 dollars in the bill of materials I would be surprised, I would have paid more for the unit if they only made it look better but I can only say this baby may be ugly but it works fantastic on the noise and that's what you are paying for. I am surprised that ole Martin doesn't have a premier line like under the Ameritron label which would be built better and just charge a little more but he is been in this biz a long time and who am I to rebuttal his success. |
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| G4VWT |
Rating:      |
2018-05-01 | |
| Great ....G4VWT |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| they do work ,I have one,can be fiddly to get the sweet spot, I have found another use for it ,my main antenna for the higher frequencies is a virtical ,I have a off centre fed dipole for the lower frequencies ,I found I can use both antennas at the same time for receiving,and it makes a lot of difference , I have no idea how it does it,inverting the phase can pull em in too,I stuck a wide band preamp on the auxiliary antenna that helps too, all in all ,great bit of kit to mess about with :-) |
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| WB5CON |
Rating:      |
2017-10-09 | |
| Great noise fighting tool! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| This device has reduced the local noise on 75 meters from my downtown location from S9 to S5. On the FlexRadio 6300 display the noise floor went from -90dbm to -115dbm, a 25db improvement!! Stations that I can barely hear, but not understand, are very clear with this unit inline. The hardware is plug-and-play, but the adjustments and operation take some time to get set up properly. I have not tried using it for anything else other than local noise on 75 meters. But it is worth the price just for that! |
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| RAHOBIT |
Rating:      |
2017-09-07 | |
| Tuned in, it does really work |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
This device is incredibly good when you get to know how to make best use of it. Do not think of it as just another noise reduction filter. It's more of a two antenna combiner - phase shifter. There may even be something of a phase slewing directional effect going on.
A couple of months ago the increase in noise levels around my shack was enough to almost finish daytime SWL and even at night on some stations it was so bad it had me depressed. I do run 4-5 antenna's and was able to select the best for the job through the antenna switch but that was not always using the best antenna for the meterband.
I had also found by experimenting and combining a couple of them, either together or with one acting as the earth to my homebrew ATU, I was able to improve things somewhat, but only sometimes.
Then I remembered I had purchased the 1026 a couple of years ago and put it to work. After reading the manual and watching UTube my learning began again and the good results flowed. Firstly I made the jumper lead change and removed the internal telescopic. You really need (at least) two external antenna's in my experience which I think should ideally be hung a few meters distance from each other as this will enhance the phase-shift that the 1026 will use to get the best null of noise. With a third and fourth antenna you can experiment more as I did to get the best effect.
I even found that my best antenna, cut for the correct band, is better used as the "auxiliary antenna" in the 1026 unit and then I use one of my random wires for the "main antenna". My experience is this way I could amplify my best antenna signal as much as the noise would permit. I can experiment with the other random antennas to pick up plenty of the noise for the unit to null with.
Following the UTube demo I can now easily tune my own setup, although sometimes there are up to 4 goes at it. How much noise, and which direction its from, has a major influence. And it has to be eliminated for each band, even different stations.
Briefly,
- main gain to full, read the S meter, turn back to 0 (this is the "random" antenna)
- turn up the aux antenna gain (use pre-amp if necessary) to get the same S reading (this is my "good" antenna
- turn up the main antenna gain again
- use the HI switch setting if receiving 9MHz or more, or LO otherwise (although this too can be experimented with)
- now use the phase knob like a frequency tuner ie slowly and listening for a noise decrease. Try the whole range. If you get no improvement try the other "phase normal/invert" switch and turn the phase knob again tuning for a noise decrease.
- if you get no hint of a noise decrease, maybe reverse the antenna inputs or use a different aux antenna. You can also just throw a wire out the window to pick up noise!
- once you get a noise decrease, adjust the gains on either or both antennas to reduce it further. Carefully also use the phase knob again to improve it. These three adjustments can be quite sensitive and it is certainly not a case of "wind the phase and gains up to full and randomly back them off"!
- I've even found one setting where the main antenna gain is 0 and the phase knob is still effective. If I turn the unit off (bypass) the noise is terrible. On, its almost gone.
In fact, the result is usually an astounding improvement in readability - not necessarily in signal strength although this too can be improved with careful tweaking. But the noises around me can be almost nulled and that's something my antenna's alone have not been able to do.
For me this unit has been a godsend, very effective during night or day and has revived my SWL to the point where I can DX again. |
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| AC6BW |
Rating:      |
2017-03-25 | |
| Works well |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I suffer from noise from neighbors' solar panel arrays. The noise is present on 15, 12 and 10m, and is S9 +10 dB on 12m. The MFJ-1026 brings the noise down to S2-3! It does work, but the key is to have a noise receiving antenna that receives the noise at the same level as the main antenna. I use a low dipole tuned for 12m, at about 15-20 ft. I will also mention that the unit works best with local noise. It won't do well with skywave noise, as the phase is constantly shifting.
I published a video demonstarting the MFJ-1026 capabilities at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msr8OoSzLNM
I recommend using the external T/R Control input on the rear of the unit. Run a cable to this input from the "TX GND" output of your transceiver. That way, you won't have to rely on the internal RF detect circuit to switch out the MFJ-1026 circuitry during TX.
I added a relay that shorts the AUX antenna input to GND during TX. Use a 12V coil relay. Wire the high side of the coil to +12V. Wire the low side of the coil to the T/R Control input, through a 1N914 diode. The Cathode of the diode should connect to the T/R Control input. The diode prevents problems due to different pull-up voltages on the T/R Control line during RX, if you have more than one piece of equipment connected to the TX Gnd output of your transceiver.
Overall I think it's a great unit. It got me back on the air on the high bands. Prior to this, I couldn't hear anything. |
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| KB2SMS |
Rating:     |
2017-01-26 | |
| Works fine! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
The 1026 works very well. I get hammered by local AM radio stations on part of nearly every HF band and this unit knocks it right out. Brings S10-20 noise down to S3. Check out the Youtube videos on it, including mine (Tommyr). It makes a HUGH difference. And I'm only using the built in whip.
I'm not spending $600 for the DX engineering unit, that price is totally ridiculous. |
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| KC0EKQ |
Rating:     |
2017-01-26 | |
| It works... |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
... but not always.
I've been into the whole radio madness for decades now, and have used just about all the commercially available phasing/noise cancelling models over the years.
The MFJ 1025/1026 is a decent phasing unit, and for its price it's a fair piece of gear.
But it's not as easy to achieve a real null as a few other units, the best being the Quantum Phaser from Gerry Thomas at RadioPlus.
The 1025/1026 takes a longer time of fiddling around to find a null, and once you do, it still doesn't get quite as down and quiet a null as the Quantum or even the DX Engineering phasing unit (which is stunningly expensive given its competitors' pricing and its performance).
But it will kill lots of types of noise, and for those who think it's just junk, well, being an MFJ product it could easily have been a poorly assembled unit you were trying to use, but I have to chalk up any terrible review to user issues, not the product. It takes more than matching antennas to get good use of the 1025/1026, or any phasing unit for that matter.
It's a good model and it works when you use it properly... it's just not the best model.
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| ZS4U |
Rating:      |
2016-12-29 | |
| Works as advertised! |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| If you have a single noise source and utilize a proper noise receive antenna this unit will astonish you. I was suffering from a neighbor's cheap diode lighting system and the MFJ-1026 took care of the problem. Highly recommended. |
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| M0WNF |
Rating:      |
2016-07-09 | |
| It does work |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| My qth is in the middle of town with electrified railway system 50yards away plus a local retail area so noise can be considerable. IF you follow the instructions and don`t expect this to do what it was never designed to do it works and works very well. Mostly i can now operate when before i could not. |
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