| KC9PHX |
Rating:     |
2014-09-08 | |
| Satisfaction with Purchase |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
For performance and utility I give it a 5. I
I give it a 4 due to my experience of having to send it back initially to correct a buzz during transmit. I will say it was turned around quickly and now works very well. I am very happy with this radio. It's basic, old school and really grows on you. Still fun to use and the filtering and automatic speech processor create great signal reports. Pretty good receiver too.
I've owned a 9420 for 2 years and use it daily. I take it mobile with a 7 amp SLA battery, portable in parks and when traveling on vacation,etc.
I run it at home with a home brew inverted delta loop mostly and I've made qso's with Africa, South America, Europe and every state in USA. Also run portable with a LNR End Fed for 20 meters or a home brew PAC 12 vertical. Ham Stick on the car. Again all over the world. If I can hear them, I'll work them running about 5-10 watts.
I get great signal reports and 75% of the time the other station congratulates me on the QRP signal strength and quality... Mostly 55, 57 and 59. Many times I've penetrated a pile up with other big sounding stations.
It's a bit of an investment new... look for a good used one. Also buy a couple of fuses in case you hook up the connections to a battery backwards. It will pop a one time fuse on the board(little squiggly line on board) and you'll have to use a half inch of wire and solder in a replacement the fuse. Happens to me now and then. Will blow even if radio is off! Easy fix however.
Overall. A great little radio that can take a beating and I do not get too worried about babying it. For portable operation it works fantastic all for a couple of hundred bucks.
If you've come here looking at the reviews... you're probably close to buying one. I do not think I'll ever get rid of this rig. If I do I give to a new aspiring ham on a budget. Does what it was designed for and does it very well.
73..
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| KI4GIS |
Rating:      |
2014-06-20 | |
| MFJ-9417 Great Rig! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Just unpacked my new MFJ-9417 17M transceiver and decided to give it a tough test. I place a MFJ-2317 stick antenna on my metal garden table and connected it to the 9417. Band conditions were listed as "fair" on June 20. My first contact from Starkville, MS was with KB1VFU in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. I was transmitting at 5W. Larry was patient, receiving me at a 53. MFJ has a great product with this rig! Some folks knock MFJ but I have yet to have a bad experience with Martin's products. I highly recommend the 9417! |
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| WX9DX |
Rating:      |
2014-03-18 | |
| Amazing radios 94XX series! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have had these radios over 15 years and I just bought another 9440, as I gave my other away. These are great on CW, so don't forget to buy the CW board “ $49” when you get the radio. I have worked lots and lots of DX on 40 and 20 meters with the 9440 and 9420, and these work fine from my side by side 4 wheeler while fishing or hunting “ out having fun”. I have used them on field days and from the mountains, like Klingmans Dome in NC/TN boarder. I have never had any problems with them. You would want a crystal calibrator if possible or check the frequency alignment every so often to see where the dial is so you stay in your bad limits. Wish MFJ would print the schematics on the Web for these and other products. If you do have to repair one call MFJ Tec support first and ask what you might be looking at repairing it at home. I did lend one to a friend that hooked it up backwards and MFJ has a circuit trace in the 94xx series to protect the these radios incase you don’t use an external fuse... But replace that with an internal wire in fuse when you fix one… 73 Jimmy, ARRL TC, WX9DX |
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| W3JJM |
Rating:      |
2014-01-23 | |
| Excellent |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I have the 9440. Good fit and finish and a blast to operate. Have had the FT 817, IC703 and others but this one is the most fun. With a small battery and Par End FedZ antenna you can be on the air while outside or camping in less than a minute. Equally fun in the shack as well. Good speaker and much better tone than the other two radios I mentioned. Good signal reports and does get through even when there is a lot of qrm. Have had it about a week with contacts as far as Brisbane and the UK. Puts out a solid 10 watts right out of the box. Made in the USA too. I have the one for 17 meters on order right now so I can work my favorite band. Super rugged case. MfJ should be rightly proud of this product. |
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| N5RMQ |
Rating:      |
2013-11-01 | |
| Outstanding |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Bought my MFJ-9420 used. I had no idea it would perform so well. I have had numerous DX contacts and can work just about anyone I hear stateside. Without fail, I get compliments on the beautiful audio. I'm running it portable, with a 20 m inverted V, fed at 16 ft from a fiberglass telescoping pole.
Only downside, it's a bear to tune. I am looking forward to getting one of the newer ones with the fine tune.
What a bunch of fun in a small package, I'm getting where I would rather work QRP than 100 w.
Get one! |
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| JL1KRA |
Rating:      |
2013-09-14 | |
| Satisfied with my MFJ-9406X |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
Boring with my perfect FT-817 and IC-706, I purchased the 9606X from HRO.
This transceiver is really fun. Not by DDS,
not by DSP. Amusement of analog tuning is
still remaining!
Though I don't have boat anchors, this
is kind of the transceiver give you an relax time.
Inside is filled by SMD parts, I think the
MFJ production is very good.
But if you will use this transceiver for primary,
I would like to recommend you other serious Yaecomwood and Tentec.
One thing I mention here is a CW adapter.
Though this is expensive option, It didn't
work well.
Problems are automatic T-RX offset by inserting
key, noisy side tone and receiver howling.
I have to fix this by additional modification.
I suppose MFJ-96xx upgraded main board is
upgraded, but the optional CW adapter is remaining for old design.
Still it was fun for me as an amateur.
This transceiver is not for CW purpose.
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| WB2LKO |
Rating:  |
2013-09-12 | |
| Very Disappointed |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I purchased the MFJ 9420 to use on my sailboat. My band selection was 20 meters to enable me to check in to the 14.3 maritime net. In addition, 20 meters made it possible to use an end fed antenna that fit perfectly, suspended from my mast to the stern of the boat.
I made several contacts and could immediately determine the receiver is superb. I was amazed at signal clarity and sensitivity.
Audio output was also very strong and the tuning knobs had a "heavy duty" feel when turning them.
HOWEVER: I received consistently poor reports on my transmitted audio.
I took the unit home, connected to a dummy load and listened to my transmitted signal. First, I noted that when pushing the mike button, the unit transmitted a carrier.
The transmitted audio was terribly distorted. I am amazed anyone bothered to make the effort to contact me. Perhaps it was because I had been operating on a net.
I spoke with someone at MFJ and was told they had reports of bad microphones and a new one was sent to me. The new mike made no difference. Transmitted audio was still almost useless.
By now I was quite disgusted. I called MFJ again telling them I wanted a refund. Since the second mike came with a return shipping label for the original mike, I was told to use that label to send everything back.
I complained that the total charge for the unit had been on my credit card for several weeks and I did not think it fair for me to wait until the shipper came to retrieve the package, return it to MFJ and wait for MFJ to process before giving me my refund.
The service rep at MFJ agreed, reluctantly, and told me he would issue an immediate refund. Further, he agreed to send me an email confirming all issues.
A full day has passed since this discussion with MFJ.
I have not received any emails from MFJ.
I have not received the refund.
I left the unit outside my front door for two full days before the shipper came and never received any notification of when they might come.
As an additional note, when I first received the unit, the painted on words, "Tune" and "Fine" on the front panel were already partially scratched off.
I still believe the MFJ 9420 is most likely a terrific radio and I am most disappointed that it was necessary to return it.
My greatest disappointment is with MFJ.
While their equipment seems to be electronically first rate, their quality control is obviously very poor. If they already had received other "reports" of bad mikes, which I also saw in online discussions, then why send one without testing it?
If the radio was bad, which may be the case, and the panel was scratched, why send it to a customer?
Also, why promise actions to a customer and not deliver?
Purchasing from MFJ is a gamble. It might work, they might follow through on promises and you might be satisfied.
Or you may have a poor experience like mine.
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| IZ0FYS |
Rating:    |
2013-08-05 | |
| THIS RADIO DON'T RUN AT 10-12 watt as declared |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Perfect receiver, but please stop saying MFJ9420 run at 10-12 watt....
At 13.8Vcc it goes only 3-5 watt PeP !!
I checked all the voltage on circuit and all the test points are OK like indicated in the technical manual.
So.....whay MFJ declare much more power output? |
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| MM0LBX |
Rating:     |
2013-06-15 | |
| Great Little radio |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
A lovely little Transceiver, lots of fun using it in my garden.
With a Dipole cut for 20m, 8m asl on a fibreglass mast this little bundle of magic has managed me some nice DX, PR, CE & HI all SSB, yeap, surprised me too, all last year, not much happening DX wise this year yet, conditions have been terrible last few weeks but plenty of EU while outside in my garden in the sun.
Stations are surprised with only 7W output, comments on the strong audio.
As mentioned, CW sidetone is terrible as I have the add-on and the speaker isn't great but more than adequate.
Hook this to the main shack antenna and plenty of interest from stations worldwide.
Great for what it is and highly recommend for portable. |
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| KF7RCM |
Rating:    |
2012-12-12 | |
| I purchased a 9420 with the mic. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
The reason I gave it a 3 is due to the fact that the mic that came with it in a word "sux". I recomend that if one were to get one, get it with out the mic. No matter what I did to make it function, it only distorted the audio output. I got a Super Star DM-507-5r 5 pin din mic off ebay for about $10 and it works great. That said, coupled to 2 MFJ's 20 meter hamsticks and the bracket that allows one to make a horizontal dipole out of them, mounted a little more than 30' up, I easily made QSOs on the eastern seaboard. Not bad since I am north of Phoenix, AZ and desert soil is'nt very good for this sort of thing. Set it up on my F-150 in a mobile configuration and made it to the southern states. I dont have the CW mod and not going to get it. I would like to have a digital freq counter mod available though. Not a bad little radio. Will update this review as needed.
The connection is a 5 pin din for a radioshack/realistic radio. |
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