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Reviews For: MFJ-945-E

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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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
KB0SFP Rating: 2010-06-01
Total JUNK! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Total junk! Called a mobile tuner but will not tune anything that you'd find in a mobile environment. In fact, I don't think it will tune anything at all. Tiny air variables starting arching with 20 watts into it. Cheezy pop rivets on SO-239 were loose(only 2 rivets for 4 holes). I have TWO of them, they both acted exactly the same. DO NOT waist your time & money!!!

Dennis Starks
Military-Radio-Guy
KB0SFP
Monitor(all USB):
3996, 5403.5, 7296, 14342.5, 18157.5
MM1EWA Rating: 2010-02-06
Junk Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Waste of time, its really something thats not worth owning, I was generous and gave it a 1 because it can function as an RF indicator.
N6JSX Rating: 2009-06-29
More-Failed-Junk Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Got it at the last minute for FD due to AT-11mp took a dive.

Did not work out of the box at FD site. Found the Antenna tuning capacitor wire run between the PCB to the air capacitor was disconnected. But worse was the wire was cut to short never being wrapped around the capacitor turret connection. The wire just barely reached the turret and was held in place by bridging the gap with solder. Also the wire routing was bent around the tune/bypass switch coming very close to the switch pins. MFJ workmanship is crappy, saying it kindly and MFJ Quality visual inspection/test was non-existent!

After fixing the problem I found it would barely tune and often when I touched the knobs the meter needles would jump around. The multi-band antenna was element tuned to less than 2.0:1 on all bands, the tuner could not tune them to the edges of their respective bands. Truly More-Failed-Junk.

Since I tossed the box I'm stuck with this MFJ lemon.
K4ZNC Rating: 2009-03-10
I really wanted it to work! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I needed a backup tuner for the shack and for portable or moblie if the Z 11 went out on me. Well, the 945E does get the SWR down with proper tuning. Unfortunately, when my hand touches either of the capaciter knobs, the SWR goes flat, and when I remove my hand, SWR jumps to 1.2 to 1.3, so I don't know if my SWR reading is accurate. Yes, I have a good ground system and the tuner is connected to the ground.

I can live with an innacurate reading at that level (in a pinch), but really would like to know that the SWR is accurate.

So will decide shortly to return the tuner or keep for emergencies.
W4XKE Rating: 2008-09-28
Junky Components Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The 945 E definitely needs help. After a few weeks mobile, it was a shamble. Tuning would jump off the scale. Placing a finger on the tuning knob would cause it to jump again, sometimes back to resonance, or not.

I removed the 945 E from the dash (no easy task in my installation) and took the cover off to have a look inside. I discovered MFJ had chosen an air-variable capacitor that only had a rotor support on one end. The rear end of the rotor shaft is totally un-supported.

There was no way to tighten up the front shaft bearing, so any touch or vibration would cause the rotor to wobble and flop around. (This has a detrimental effect on tuning at resonance.) I thought of ordering a new cap but could see little advantage in replacing it with another one of these.

Second option would be to buy a quality capacitor with bearings at both ends of the rotor shaft, and try to re-engineer MFJ’s design, but then I looked at the meter and the rest of the unit and decided on option # 3 (toss the whole thing into the circle file).

Since some people seem to have gotten along with their 945 E units, I have decided not to score it a complete zero (although that’s what mine is) and give it a 2 (needs work in the engineering / components selection department).

If I was building this unit, I’d opt to spend an additional $1.34 for a capacitor with 2 bearings (one at each end of the rotor shaft) and a decent meter. (I hate indecent meters!)
OE5BFM Rating: 2008-09-02
No Problems Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have absolutely no problems with this tuner. I use it with my TS-130S for portable usage. E.g. I use a Longwire with 1:9 Balun or a Quadloop.
The advantage from the MFJ-Tuners for me is, that the big aircoil produces little losses and is adjustable in little steps, not only bandswitches. So most times I can reach the optimal tuning under consideration of less induction and biggest capacitance as possible. This gives little losses and smoothest tuning.
As mentioned from other Hams the case is lightweighted and (a bit) cheap built, but however, this tuner IS cheap, hi.
And the weight is an advantage for mobile / portable usage.
So I recommend this tuner.
IK0WRB Rating: 2008-03-12
Is this a tuner? Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I used this tuner for about a year and I noticed that it arcs well before reaching the 300 watt of power.
Even at 100 Watt, I have always the impression of an unreliable tuning.
At the end I tried it on 160 mt band on a 80 mt dipole, just to try, and I fried it, well below 100 watt.
Ok, the manual states clearly not to try to tune on a band lower than what is allowed by your wires, but wasn't a tuner meant to deal with these situations or not?
Looking inside, all looks quite cheap, especially the meters. I don't even know if it is worth fixing...
I have tried other MFJ equipments and some are really good, my TNC for example, but I would rather leave this tuner on the shelf.

IK0WRB
KE5KJL Rating: 2008-03-01
Very Pleased Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Picked one of these up at HamCom for $65, and couldn't be happier with it. No problems tuning anything from a G5RV to a slinky antenna for portable operations.
WA6PBJ Rating: 2008-01-18
Low bucks, Big performance Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Hey...what do you want!? This just does a very good job for which it was designed. It works for others...works for me...and should work for you (if you know when, how, and why to use a tuner). Obviously no tuner will tune out 'ignorance'!
KD5SPJ Rating: 2008-01-17
Great little tuner Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Picked it up tonite, wokrs great on all the bands I have tried so far. USE the manual because you aren't suppoosed to chainge taps while transmitting. Other than misuse I think these MFJ's will last forever. Even if they won;t they are cheap enough to re-buy. Mine cost $75.00 used very lightly. I am retrning the Versa Tuner II i have been borrowing for the last month. Other than an antenna selector, the VTII is almost identical. Except this one also does to 60mhz, instead of 30mhz.