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Reviews For: MFJ-959C RECEIVER ANTENNA TUNER, SWL, WITH PREAMP

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : MFJ-959C RECEIVER ANTENNA TUNER, SWL, WITH PREAMP
Reviews: 1MSRP: 129.95
Description:
The MFJ-959C provides proper impedance matching so you can
transfer maximum signal from antenna to receiver. It covers
1.6 to 30 MHz. A 20dB preamp with variable gain control
boosts weak stations. A 20dB attenuator in/out prevents
overload. Select from 2 antennas and 2 receivers.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-959C
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0015
RAHOBIT Rating: 2016-06-29
Excellent antenna selector, tuner, preamp Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This antenna tuner for SWL works really well, but best for me when it has two antenna's connected. It really improves the reception using the first antenna when I plug the second one into the other input socket. It also works best with an earth lead, even if in my case that is just a wire straight down the side of the wall from the window of the antenna entry into the house.

The A-J inductor selection certainly is needed depending on what frequency one is listening to. It takes a little trial adjustment with the antenna and receiver knobs to decide the best inductor setting but this is repeatable so one can establish a table of settings for each meter-band and just fine tune from there.

The pre-amp is excellent and doesn't seem to introduce much noise to the receiver (in my case usually Drake R8B) while boosting weak signals. In fact the unit seems to perform best when one uses the pre-amp and just use less gain if you don't need it. The pre-amp does overload but only on extremely strong signals and you can just wind back the gain. I rarely use the attenuation button.

With the small push-on push-off buttons it isn't obvious when the unit is powered up so I soldered a small LED inside behind the on-off button to great effect. One could do the same to the pre-amp button but I was mainly concerned about leaving it on for extended periods, especially during storms.

The unit has SO-239 connectors for the antennas and to the receiver(s) but I just use thick lead-in wires from my random wire antennas and a short thick wire to the receiver antenna plus a simple earth wire. Looking inside the case of the MFK-959C, there are just simple wires from these sockets anyway so I don't think impedance matching is critical.

My setup works superbly. Of course, one cannot generate a readable signal from nothing, but the MFJ-959C helps enormously with weak or noisy signals and the Drake R8B does the rest.