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Reviews For: MFJ Hyper Gain 62" tall

Category: Antennas: VHF/UHF+ Omnidirectional: verticals, mobile, etc

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Review Summary For : MFJ Hyper Gain 62" tall
Reviews: 2MSRP:
Description:
dual band equivilant to a Diamond SG7900
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0021.5
KA7OEI Rating: 2007-01-04
I won't do THAT again... Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I picked this antenna up in Dayton in '99 from the MFJ booth: It looked to be a pretty good antenna - and it appeared to have plenty of aperture to do well in weaker signal areas. Although the antenna had a UHF connector on it, it came with an NMO-UHF adaptor - which was good, because I had a stout NMO mount on the car.

After I got home, I discovered that the UHF to NMO adaptor that had been supplied didn't actually fit the antenna: It would screw on about 3 turns and then bind up. Temporarily, I mounted it on a UHF mount - but because all of my other antennas were NMO, I wanted to make sure that I got this taken care of.

In the very short time I used it (a week or so) it worked fine - around town, at least, until it (somewhat lightly) hit a low branch on my street, at which point one of the coils (the 2nd one down, I believe) snapped. I presumed that it was my fault, although it didn't appear to have hit hard at all.

At this point, I called MFJ and explained the situation with the NMO adaptor and the coil, and to their credit, they simply sent me a new one of each right away (hence the "1" rating.)

While the new trap was OK, the new NMO-UHF adaptor was EXACTLY like the old one - that is, mis-manufactured. In looking closer, it appeared that the UHF connector threads on the antenna were just fine, but those on the adaptor itself were cut about 1 turn-per-inch out of spec. Calling MFJ again and, once again, explaining the problem, the person on the other end seemed to be understanding, acknowledged that there had been a manufacturing error, and asked that I send back the two mis-manufactured adaptors.

I sent back the two adaptors, along with a note explaining and problem - and why I even had two adaptors. About two months (and a few reminder phone calls) later, I got TWO adaptors in the mail (even though I'd originally had just one.) Unfortunately, they, too, were exactly like the other two - the wrong pitch of threads.

At this point I gave up with trying to get proper adaptors out of MFJ. In looking carefully at the "bad" adaptors, I noticed that the threads went "out of phase" and then back in again over the length of the adaptor, so I chucked the "bad" adaptor in a lathe and simply removed the threads in the middle: This allowed the adaptor to screw in all of the way and engage several threads at the bottom and the top. Finally, I had a usable adaptor...

In mounting the antenna on the car again, I had it on for only a few weeks until I hit that same tree again (not very hard!) and, again, snapped the same coil as before.

I decided that I'd had enough with the antenna and parted it out for pieces. For quite a while, I used a simple 5/8 wave NMO-mount whip to replace it, foregoing the use of the 70cm half of the radio.

I've since gotten a Diamond antenna that is about the same height as the MFJ - and even hit that same tree a lot of times (it's even lower now) and never had any problems. (I'll rate *that* antenna once I've used for over a year...)
KD4WOV Rating: 2001-01-20
Good proformer but poor workmanship. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I used this antenna for a year. And was always tightning the set screws. if i went on a trip using the interstate every 300 miles i would have to tighten the set screws. this antenna was mounted on the fender with a thru the body connector. After a year the antenna set screws started striping out. the material was too soft to hold the set screws.
Also an interesting thing happened i noticed the range had decreased. as ai examened the antenna i found the fold over joint had major rust forming. I replaced it with a DIAMOND and have never had any of the above menioned problems.

I may have gotten a first run antenna, but latter modles are suposed to be better. It is a good proformer but i would not buy another one untill they make a few improvements.