Manager


Manager - NA4M
Manager Notes
Reviews Home

Reviews For: MFJ-2286

Category: Antennas: HF Portable (not mobile)

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-2286
Reviews: 4MSRP: $119
Description:
18 ft telescoping vertial antenna. Comes with based loading coil, four radials and clamp. Tunes 40-6m
Product is in production
More Info:
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0043
VK2IK Rating: 2023-08-13
Simple, Convenient, Quick and excellent performance Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Ive had since 2018 and not had any quality issues.

This antenna is a great performer, well worth the effort.

Its very convenient to use, nice and quick to set up and pack down for portable operations and it gets you on air with a decent antenna with little effort and minimal fuss.

Its very easy to tune , makes for rapid band changes. I have also used it on 80m with an ATU with good results as well.

I've just picked up another whip as a back up and will also try it for a quick and easy rotatable dipole.

They are not the easiest antenna to get in VK but well worth it , always get great sig reports on 80-10m , its a full size vertical on 20m and up and just so easy to set up and pack down again.
K4FMH Rating: 2020-07-21
Bought the 1st out of production: FANTASTIC portable vertical! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
When MFJ announced their V-dipole, the Big Ear, I emailed Martin Jue to encourage him to make a lightweight but sturdy telescoping vertical antenna that would handle up to QRO (but at least 500 watts). He followed up on that with the Big Stick (MFJ-2286). The open-air inductance matching coil will handle full power if need be. While it comes with a set of wires for a counterpoise, I made my own so it would have a better impedence match.

When he wrote back that it was going to production, I requested the purchase of the first one. I keep it in a $16 camera tripod case I bought on Amazon. I have used it frequently over the past few years. It takes an analyzer (or one built into the rig) to get the SWR minimized because of installing it over various ground conductivity levels when portable. The 17' stainless steel whip is almost indescructable. I actually bought a second Big Stick and use the MFJ dipole mount for a horizontal rotatable dipole. While the whips droop in this configuration, I use a painter's roller handle attached to the dipole mount to accomplish two things. One is to affix it on top of a painter's pole inserted into a tripod base. The second is to use nylon cord with plastic potato chip clips on each end. These are clipped to each end of the (formerly drooping) whips to keep them almost flat in the horizontal plane.

I love this portable antenna system!
N7WY Rating: 2020-07-20
Caveat emptor headaches Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Like VA3JAQ, there is not much good to say about this product. Straight out of the box, the wire that ends with an alligator clip to bridge turns of the loading coil is too short by 3 cm. Not too long after I started using the clip, it broke off the wire so now I use alligator jumpers I bought from Radio Shack. Current issue is that resonance moves between 6.5 and 8 MHz while I am trying to set the alligator clip to achieve resonance on 7.1 MHz. I suspect the whip sections are erratically losing continuity.
VE3JAQ Rating: 2020-07-07
Portable HF 40-6m vertical antenna Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Now that I have used this antenna for a few months I have decided to change my rating significantly.
Due to the very poor quality of the 342 mount It does not hold up to much if any sustainable wind. The coil threaded connection came loose and when I tried to tighten it slightly the SO239 connector popped off. I could see that the only thing holding the connector to the mounting plate was a piece of molded plastic and even that was poorly constructed. This antenna will not hold up to much wind. Also the coil lead is too short and repeated tuning caused the clip to come off. All in all the performance is not bad but I have reduce my rating to 2. This antenna quality needs attention!