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Reviews For: MFJ 1769

Category: Antennas: HF: Yagi, Quad, Rotary dipole, LPDA

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Review Summary For : MFJ 1769
Reviews: 2MSRP: £350
Description:
20-15-10-6 Full size rotary dipole
Product is in production
More Info:
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0024
N7WR Rating: 2023-10-31
OK, but barely Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I was looking for a rotatable dipole for 10/15/20. The majority are made by companies which are now part of MFJ. I have owned a number of MFJ products over the decades. Some OK, some not so OK, a few terrible, and a few excellent. In looking at the major suppliers (HRO, DX Engineering, Giga Parts), I found that most of the advertised tri band rotatable dipoles would not even be in stock until Jan 2024 or later. I had a window of "Indian Summer" to get the antenna in the air. Jan-Mar would have likely not worked due to winter weather.

I found this antenna was available and it included 6 meters. I ordered one with the intention of not adding the 6 M element as I have other antennas for that band.

All parts were included in the box--nothing missing. However two of the parts absolutely did not work. The antenna is advertised to fit masts up to 1 1/2 inch OD. Well that is the mast I have but no way were the legs of the U bolt long enough. Finding a replacement at the local hardware stores with the same diameter of U bolt legs was impossible. To get the length I needed I had to go with a wider diameter....which meant I had to drill out the holes in the fiberglass center insulator to make it work. Did that and it should be OK.

I followed the instructions explicitly and used center of band dimensions...EXCEPT given the supplied tubing (too long) spacing between the 10 and 15 meter traps could not be kept to 7 inches as called for because the tubing for that connection was nearly 10 inches long.

My first inclination was to take a hack saw and shorten those tubes but I decided to use them and see what happens. I may have to shorten them to get the proper SWR on 10 and 15.

With a little adjustment of the overall length of the dipole the SWR on 20 is excellent. 10 and 15 are just fair--usable but far from ideal.

With a few more days of decent weather I may take it down and shorten the tube between the traps to see if the 10 and 15M SWRs improve. I'll update this review if that works
M0RQX Rating: 2022-12-08
Very Happy Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I don't have the space for a yagi so i gave one of these a try.

Installed at around 9.5m and have worked as far as VK from the UK.

I must admit i have not installed the 6m part yet as i don't really use the band but i may fit it when summer comes back around.

A great way to have a decent antenna that the neighbours won't complain about!