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Reviews For: Mizuho MX-21S

Category: QRP Radios (5 watts or less)

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Review Summary For : Mizuho MX-21S
Reviews: 7MSRP: 350 (depends on exchange rate)
Description:
15 meter SSB/CW handheld transceiver
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.waters-and-stanton.co.uk/cgi-shopping/acatalog/WSPLC_COM_QRP___MIZUHO_78.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0074.9
G0KOK Rating: 2016-11-07
Mods and Crystals Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I am just mad about the little rigs, they are built like a brick **** house, I have four MX-21S rigs and one rare MX-21 with external VFO and amplifier, I have recently converted one of them to work on 12m 24 mHz and awaiting the two crystals for converting another one to 17m 18 mHz, the crystals are still very easy to obtain here in the UK from Dave at www.quartslab.com , I have supplied Dave with all the frequency charts for Mizuho the crystals usually arrive in about three weeks, I have no commercial interest with Quartslab I might add.
The other models I have collected are MX-3.5s (x2) MX-7s (x4) MX-14s (x2) MX-21s (x4) MX-21 (x1) MX-28s (x1) MX-6s (x1) MX-6 (x1) MX-2 (2).
In addition I have the 10 Watt amps (PL-) for 3.5 , 7 , 14 , 15 and 6.
If the MX-21s to 18s works well I will attempt to produce the model that never was, convert one of my MX-7s to MX-10s.
The big challenge is the front panels in making the changes to look authentic, why bother you may ask ?, simple 18 months ago I bid on Ebay £550.00 for an MX-18s and was beaten, the Mx-24s I have never seen for sale.
Peter G0KOK
HB9OBZ Rating: 2012-05-04
A PIECE OF HISTORY Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I'M HB9DTA AND AS I WROTE FOR ITS MX-7S BROTHER, THE MX-21S IS A NICE LITTLE RIG TO HAVE. NOWADAYS IF YOU ARE ABLE TO FIND ONE, EXPECT TO PAY QUITE A LOT TO HAVE THIS JEWEL BUT IF IT IS IN GOOD SHAPE BUY IT AND YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED ! YOU CAN MAKE REALLY NICE QSO'S WITH THE 15M VERSION. WHEN BAND IS OPEN DX WITH ITS WHIP ANTENNA AND LESS THAN 2W OUTPUT IF AT THE RIGHT PLACE (MOUNTAIN TOP) IS REALLY EASY TO ACHIEVE. QUALITY AND CRAFTMANSHIP IS EXCELLENT AND NO OTHER SSB/CW RIG OF THIS TYPE HAS BEEN PRODUCED EXCEPTION MADE FOR THE NICE THP HT-750 (WHICH I ALSO HAVE.....) 73, ALEX HB9DTA
SWL377 Rating: 2010-12-10
Great for QRP SSB, so so for CW Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I now own two Mizuhos, one for 10M and one for 15M. They are remarkable little radios and SOOO fun to use. I am not a proficient CW op, but if I were I'd be disappointed in this rig. Transmitting CW without external accessories is very clumsy. SSB is great. Good rcvr, reasonably selective and good audio on xmit even using the internal mic. Battery life is excellent, no hungry microcontrollers to feed. Freq stability is very good. What I love about my Mizuho is that I can carry it in my car and be on the air in 10 seconds. I routinely fire it up on lunch breaks to check for band openings. The NB doesnt seem very effective, but these days we are spoiled by DSP. Another great thing abou these radios is that their value really holds up on the used gear mkt. They must have really top notch components in them as very few old Mizuhos have leaky or shorted electrolytic caps and other maladies that plague solid state gear from this era. From what I read and have experienced, reliability is very high many decades after the mfg date. You dont get wall to wall band coverage, just two 50 KHz slices determined by your two xtals, but that's enough to have plenty of fun when the band is open. Buy one, you'll love it. I own a yaesu FT 817 QRP rig, which is great, but the Mizuho is more fun. You can get spectators really amazed and excited when you work DX with an HT, like from a public beach. I never got that reaction when using my 817 on field day.

73
AF6IM

G8ITB Rating: 2008-10-09
A Nice Piece of Kit! Fun to Use! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I use an MX-21S either alone or with a PL-21S (10 watt outboard PA) and either a (!) resonant dipole fed with 75 ohm twin feeder (if /P) or a mobile whip (if /M) and a modified Hendrix BLT for both set-ups.
I have worked into the Ukraine from the UK (on a hill in Sussex) whilst barefoot and into Texas on the higher power set-up into the dipole - again hilltopping!
It's a quirky bit of kit - but fun to play about with; no menus, no DSP, no auto ATU; etc.
The receiver is certainly far more sensitive than one would expect and the transmitter gets out with good audio reports.
I was lucky - I managed to get the complete set of VXO crystals (both CW & SSB) from Rodney Toms and Waters & Stanton before they dried up - it does mean deciding exactly what 'chunk' of the band and mode you want to use - but I stick to the SSB QRP area (my CW is terrible!) and enjoy myself; but isn't that one of the joys of Amateur Radio!
IW3FZQ Rating: 2007-03-25
The best MX I have!!! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
As I have written, the MX21-S is the best Mizuho I have. With his 2 Watts and original whip, I have made lots of DX contacts, all in SSB mode. During last ARRL International DX contest, with above setup, I have made 9 QSOs with USA stations and 1 with Canadian station. And in last October (with very poor propagation) a fantastic QSO with VR2BG, about 9000 KM far-off. Naturally, lots of contacts with all Europe stations without difficult. It is a very funny transceiver, all in my hand. The rx audio is simply fantastic and I receive good voice report from my correspondents. The receiver is very sensitivity and the selectivity is good. The battery life (I use 2100 mAh elements) is high thanks also to low consumption of this item. It is ideal for field-day or trekking. Everywhere I go, I carry it always with me!!

73 de Enrico, IW3FZQ.
M0SIS Rating: 2002-07-31
Great performance handy Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I would like to recommend the Mizuho MX-21S for all backpackers. Seriously crash-proof with superb parameters. When the dipole or better antennas is used then excellent QRP DX-ing is possible too. 73, Peter M0SIS
KU4QD Rating: 2002-02-24
Small, lightweight, 15 meter handheld = lots of fun Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
The Mizuho MX-21S may be the best "go anywhere" radio I have. Like the MX-7S (see my review) it's a single band, spartan, brick handheld. The radio is very lightweight, and it's lack of features translates into very low power consumption, so it runs a very long time indeed on a set of AA NiMH batteries. It draws only 70mA on receive, 625mA when trasnmitting. 15 meters is open all day and well into the evening this time of the sunspot cycle, so choosing this one band makes sense.

As with other models in this series, the MX-21S is VXO controlled and has room for two crystals. On this band each crystal provides 50KHz of spectrum compared to the 25KHz provided in the MX-7S or MX-3.5S. The net result is that you can have a nice slice of both the voice and CW portions of the band. The 2W rated output is conservative: mine delivers 2.5W, and yes, that is enough to make plenty of contacts, even on SSB.

The optional AN-21 antenna *does* work if you trail a quarter wave counterpoise. Without the counterpoise I find that it's really hard to get out at all. The optional MS-1 speaker/mic. is something I highly recommend with this rig. Another option, the CW-2S provides sidetone and semi-QSK operation, a must for the CW operator even if the sidetone provided is annoying. There is a little push button on the top for sending CW, but I think an external key is a whole lot easier to deal with.

Mizuho does make an optional 10W amplifier (the PL-21S) which is grossly overpriced. There is an optional mounting bracket for the combo of the rig, amp, and CW-2S, which together make a very neat little portable or mobile station.

The receiver in this little handheld is pretty amazing, and I don't seem to have the front end overload problems I have with the 40m version. There is plenty of sensitivity. Selectivity is great for SSB but a bit wide for CW. The receive audio is very pleasant indeed. Transmitted audio reports are equally nice, with folks amazed that I'm on an HT. Apparently the rig has a "big radio" sound.

The only drawbacks are the fact that you are limited to 100KHz of bandwidth (in two chunks) and the lack of QSK internal to the rig. I rated the MX-7S a "4" because it's far from a perfect CW rig, and SSB at 2W on 40m is often an exercise in futility. On 15m this style of rig really shines on SSB and is decent enough on CW (with the CW-2S) to rate a "5".