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Reviews For: MFJ 1890

Category: Antennas: HF: Yagi, Quad, Rotary dipole, LPDA

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Review Summary For : MFJ 1890
Reviews: 2MSRP: 84.95
Description:
2 element 10 meter Moxon Yagi
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-1890
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0024.5
K6LO Rating: 2016-10-28
Good value Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Hey for the price this thing can hardly be beat. Add a few bucks for a quick visit to your local Ace for better quality hose clamps, and you're golden. Sigh... MFJ... But it really performs well. I have mine at 30 feet. The improvement over a dipole is significant. The supplied current balun is borderline comical, but fine for medium power. I made a stouter one to take my rare use of an 8877 on ten. Bottom line, it is a good choice for an inexpensive turn key antenna.
AF5CC Rating: 2016-06-06
DXCC in 1 weekend! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Back in 2014 I was on the fence for quite a while abut buying a MFJ 1890 Moxon Yagi. It would require moving a couple of different antennas around and installing a new roof tripod. I actually bought one and then resold it without opening the box. Finally in November 2014 I decided to take the plunge.

The antenna arrived a couple of days before the 2014 SSB Sweepstakes and I assembled it that Saturday afternoon. I probably spend 2 hours putting it together while watching college football, and the time included a trip to Wal-mart for a hose clamp (I stripped out the included one). The antenna was well made and the manual was detailed enough to get it together without any major problems.

I put it up later that afternoon with a TV rotor that turned it with no problems. The band was starting to close but I made a few SSB QSOs in the sweepstakes and could verify that it had a good front to side ratio on it. One note for installation-this antenna is a closed loop, so plan accordingly. I didn't but was lucky that it was just big enough that I could tip it up and get it to fit over the mast and the 2 meter beam so that the mast would be inside the loop.

The next afternoon I was on the low end of 10CW and heard a 5T (Mauritania, West Africa) station calling CQ. Called him and worked him with no problems, even though he wasn't loud. During the QSO I switched over to the homebrew G5RV I had been running for several years and his signal disappeared. Switched back to the Moxon and no problems with copy. I then realized how bad my dipole was on 10m and wonder what I had missed over the past few years.

The next weekend was the CQWW CW contest, and I decided to do a 10 meter single band entry since I now had a directional antenna on 10, but not on any other HF band. I was blown away by the performance of the antenna. Most stations I called came right back to me. In the end I worked 103 different countries in one weekend on 10m! I had done quite a few somewhat serious attempts at contesting before, and had never worked DXCC in one weekend, even when doing all bands and using a Cushcraft MA5B yagi. I worked some decent DX catches as well, including Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, and Malayasia.

In a couple of years with the antenna I worked around 150 different countries on 10m, and was able to copy Oscar 7 in Mode A well on it also.

Now what makes this more amazing is that the antenna is located in a not so good location. It is 16 feet high at most, and sits behind a taller part of the house, which is covered with steel siding. This throws off the antenna SWR some, but still good enough to use with the Icom 706 I had (the 706MKII and 706MKIIG are much more sensitive to SWR, though). Most people, I am sure, will be mounting this antenna in a much better location. One advantage of my installation is that it is not visible from the front of the house.

If you like 10 meters, but don't have a lot of money or space for antennas, get this one! It is definitely worth the $100 it costs. The elements around around 12 feet long, and the boom is 4.5 feet or so. Great antenna for the size and money! Can't recommend it enough.