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Reviews For: MFJ-259

Category: Antenna Analyzers

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Review Summary For : MFJ-259
Reviews: 41MSRP: 259
Description:
MFJ-259 HF/VHF SWR ANALYYZER
1.8-170 mhZ Invalid item - see MFJ-259B
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.mfjenterprises.com/products.php?prodid=MFJ-259B
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00414.3
KB0GU Rating: 2003-07-16
MFJ 259 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Bought mine probably 4 or 5 years ago, can't remember. Never had any problems with it until in the last two years it started acting weird. I would turn the band select knob and the frequency reading would jump to VHF. Wiggle the band knob would get it to indicate the band selected. That worked for a while. Then the on/off stopped working and a little slap to the side would get it to come on. This made the band switch problem even worse, the slapping. So I took it apart and found one of the two nine volt type battery connectors had a broken wire which was repaired. While inside I inspected the solder connections (having read all these posts about poor solder joints in MFJ products) and noticed some looked grainy. Took out my pencil solder iron of low wattage and touched up all solder joints in the area of the band switch. Now it works fine business again unless I wiggle the band knob and then it will jump to VHF readings but only when I am putting some light pressure on it. Has it worked? Yes! It has saved me time and money working on antennas. I have never really tried the frequency counter much as it seems to be insensitive. My Radio Shack counter will display with its little antenna and the MFJ259 will not indicate with the same antenna connected. I purchased the grid dip kit and can't get it to work at all. Was told recently by factory customer non service person that you need to build a tank circuit for it? Was given the name of another person who knew how to do this and gave him a call. Well the advice I got was you need to know the frequency of the circuit etc you are trying to dip pretty and get as close a coupling as you can and then the dip would be faint. Well I have tried over an hour to dip a known circuit and get nothing to show on the meter at all. Unfortunately I threw out my two older grid dips a while back and wish I had not now. I probably would have tried to fix them had I known the MFJ was not going to work at all.
It was helpful when I constructed phased verticals for 80 meters and all other antennas I have used. I am going to keep this one. Not sure if I will upgrade given the reviews on the newer models. But I would still like to have it work as a grid dip if anyone has any suggestions!