Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes

Reviews For: MFJ-945-E

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

eMail Subscription

Registered users are allowed to subscribe to specific review topics and receive eMail notifications when new reviews are posted.
Review Summary For : MFJ-945-E
Reviews: 66MSRP: 109.95
Description:
160 through 6 M 300 watt metered compact mobile antenna tuner
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.mfjenterprises.com/products.php?prodid=MFJ-945E
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00663.3
ZL1SW Rating: 2012-07-17
grate little tuner Time Owned: more than 12 months.
hi all,had this tuner for over 5 years now,looks like some are not happy with them,well i have given my one a real hard time,seems to like it rough hi hi,use it mobile all the time running a alinco dx 70th into a old tx5500 300 watt amp from 20mtr up to 10mtr,the build could be better as the plastic side pannels came off so i glued them back on ,never had any arcing,still looks good inside,and still using in the wagon 4x4 .if i ever kill it i will get another one, cheers all tony zl1sw
W0ACE Rating: 2012-07-15
Arching with anything over 50 watts.... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Would be a good QRP tuner. Seems to work fine with low power, tunes easy then. Get it set flat, then crank up the power(100 watts)and it goes bananas! Will start arching and frying, sounds like it comes from the Antenna knob. Has bad coupling to your hand when adjusting. Think I will be boxing it up and sending it back. I love the size, the meter, tune/bypass. Just wish it would work. Hummm....Seems to be common thing I hear about MFJ stuff! Disappointment!!!
N8SUT Rating: 2012-07-13
NOT TOO GOOD... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought this new to use as a combination mobile/portable tuner as I needed something that will do 200w. I set it up on my desk and tried to test it on my Hustler BTV-4 on 40 meters with my TS-480HX (200w). The BTV-4 is a 2:1 antenna without a tuner. It tuned up O.K. at 5w, but major arcing started at anything above 75w. I changed the inductor setting and retuned as specified in the manual. Arcing at 125w now. Disappointing to say the least... I have a MFJ-949 that works great for the price. I was hoping to get similar performance with this one. Debating to keep for QRP only use or punt it back to MFJ...
W3PO Rating: 2011-10-15
good little tuner Time Owned: N.A.
I was given one of these years ago, and still own it. I do not use it mobile but in the shack it has done its duties without any major issues.
K7ZGQ Rating: 2011-10-10
great product! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I would give it 5 if the capacitors were not so weak looking. they didn't have a proper backing so I replaced them with some pulls out of an astron tuner! Go oldschool! worked fine before i modded it,now its a little tougher so my bumpy old pickup don't break it. Internals looked fine besides the weak caps. was put together well. great engineering!
KG4YMC Rating: 2011-07-15
works ok, had some lose switch , inductor and antenna con. Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I did one review, went into cyberspace, it is ok unit, got mine from former elmer sk, w4 gjm , I use it with ncg tribander and g5rv, on l5 and 40 , will tune on six also . Onely three bands I have so do't know about other bands. I have talked all over with it , into south pacfic , falklands , just got off talking to portugual , been useing it for 4 years now . Negative, had to tighten antenna mounting screw, onely two, and inductor switch nut came lose, I have used it ok on base, but guess could see point on not holding up for mobile use. l0 watts it works great as qrp type unit , been good value, even for mfj kg4ymc see if this stays on review 5 minutes..
N4MJG Rating: 2011-07-15
Could be little better ! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Mine is ok ,but could be little better on this tuner. i use at home when upgrade to general at that time.i needed tuner for my G5RV !


The tuner need to ship out for repair when ever i get time to send it out ! will know when i get the tuner back, i'm going to use on go box !!!

73
Jackie
N4MJG
G6EGM Rating: 2011-07-15
Excellent Value Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I think this is probably the only Antenna Tuner that is small, neat, has an antenna bypass switch and tunes 1.8 Mhz through to 54 Mhz with a metering system too.

It tunes a wide range of impedances and generally I have found it to work very well.

The build quality is very good for an MFJ product too.
G1 Rating: 2011-03-08
Could be better Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had this tuner for a couple of years. I used it to match random wires initially, then to couple my rig to a homebrew gg triode linear. I have put a maximum of 100W into it.
The manual is confusing. It says the C's are at max when set to 10. Mine was at minimum C when at 10. It also says to use the lowest possible letter for the coil, but then says to use minimum inductance (highest letter possible). Being a 'T' match, the C's are at RF potential, so hand capacitance effects occur when you get near the controls. I fitted bigger plastic knobs to reduce this. Really the C's should be further back in the case, driven by long insulated shafts. The tune/bypass switch started to cause problems after a few months. I found that a couple of the legs of the switch had been cut so short that they were only just making contact with the pcb. I replaced the switch.
The circuit in the manual has an error. On range 'A' the switch does not short the inductor at the bottom (otherwise it would be pointless having it there).
The only other commercial tuner I have is a Comet CAT-300 manual one. That has really grotty home-made looking C's which rely on the nut on the end of the shaft holding the moving plates in place. Of course my one came loose after a few weeks of use. They also use a short shaft coupling the C's to the control knobs. This also came loose a few weeks later.
I also have a homebrew 'L' match which uses a nice old big variable C which has lasted for years.
Unless you spend a load, I get the impression that most tuners are built to a very cheap budget and you would be better off getting something second hand from the 60's that was built to last. Ho hum...
W0GLB Rating: 2010-06-03
Serves my purposes Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Maybe I'm lucky, but I have never had a piece of MFJ gear that wasn't worth what I paid for it. This little tuner is no exception; in fact, mine is solidly built, neat looking, and well constructed, and performs as expected. Will it load a piece of wet string on 160? Not hardly. Will it get me four or five bands of reasonable performance on my G5RV-Jr? You bet. Of course, your mileage may vary.