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Reviews For: MFJ-902

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : MFJ-902
Reviews: 29MSRP: 69.95
Description:
Mini Travel Tuner
80-10 meters
150 watts
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
15294.4
AE7Q Rating: 2004-07-06
Almost perfect! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I use this tuner with an FT-897D and an Alpha Delta DX-EE (40/20/15/10m) antenna in the attic, and it tunes that antenna to 1:1 from 60 to 10m (tuning is critical on 60m and 12m).

I'm very pleased, as this tuner replaced a Z-100, which had problems with my setup.

After I noticed that the set screws for the knobs weren't fully tightened, I opened up the box to examine the quality (a known potential MFJ issue), and saw no problems inside.

KD5MJJ Rating: 2004-02-05
works as advertised Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.

I bought this to work with a new FT-897. Originally I wanted to order the new LDG 100 but I could not find one in stock. Therefore, plan "B" was called for. The MFJ 902 was purchased.

It works fine. It seems well built and tunes everything to SWR 1:1. I am happy.

73 Hank , KD5MJJ
K9FTB Rating: 2004-01-31
Works Great & Small Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
When I read the reviews on the 902, I was concerned about the build quality of the unit (like most other MFJ products, manufacturing quality is generally substandard). When I received the unit, I immediately removed the cover and inspected everything (not much inside) with a magnifying glass. Wow - what a surprise. It wasn't the typical MFJ build quality - it was nicely done, the cover fit well, the paint job was professional, and most of all the connections were all soldered!!

The acid test was to use it with a poor long wire close to the ground and my new IC-718. The tuner provided a 1.5:1 or better match on 80-10 !! I was surprised.

Next the on the air QSO's confirmed that the antenna was poor (low and incorrect length) - the audio was good but the signal strength was marginal - that's what I expected.

The MFJ worked fine - I built a "table" of all the tuner settings, and it's very repeatable after a band change.

I must say, my other experiences with several other MFJ products, have resulted in either a refund, a repair (which I did), or I sold it outright. This little guy, is the exception. Even the documentation looks professional - a real switch for MFJ.

This little guy comes with a banana plug so you can use a PL-259 or a long wire to the antenna. The transmitter input requires a PL-259. There is a wing-nut ground (wasn't loose either!!). The capacitors inside are both ceramic. The inductance is switched in using a wafer switch and a triple stacked torroid. There is a "tune" or "bypass" slide switch on the rear panel.

So far so good. Again I'm surprised - looks like MFJ is the only one selling such a small 150W tuner - great for portable operation with an FT-100 / IC-706, etc.
N8SEX Rating: 2003-11-29
Nice Little Tuner for 817 Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
After going through a bunch of pricy "losers' that would not automatically tune the 817, this very "Cost Effective" tuner did the trick. So far no problems whatsoever and works GREAT on ALL of my STINGY antennas for QRP and QRO.



----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by N8SEX on 2003-11-29

After going through a bunch of pricy "losers' that would not automatically tune the 817, this very "Cost Effective" tuner did the trick. So far no problems whatsoever and works GREAT on ALL of my STINGY antennas for QRP and QRO.

DF9GR Rating: 2003-10-18
Works pretty well Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Hi, I bought this little thing to use it with my IC-706 and it works great. It matches my antennas (D2T non-resonant yagi and a windom) to every band between 160 and 10m. It is only a 4 because I had to fix a bad solder joint when it came in.
Price in Europe is about 100 Euro.
vy73 Rene DF9GR
N0XE Rating: 2003-09-24
Works fine Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
MFJ products are not really terrible as some hams think but more of a Quality Control issue. I have used this little tuner along with several others from MFJ and for the most part they work, I have had to fix or QC just about every MFJ product I have owned and once done, they work as advertised. If you bought a new car and say a power window went out, I don't think you would give much thought to never buying that paticuliar car again, you would use the warranty which is in place for most new products these days, get it fixed and then probably not give it a second thought, I know of a lot of hams who have bought MFJ and have had no problems so it appears to be the luck of the draw. Once again a QC problem and if they could get that cleared up then I think most hams would be very happy. The littel tuner is very small and ideal for Qrp ops who are always looking for more options to take to the field.
73 N0XE
KF6GOM Rating: 2003-09-24
Great Size and Performance Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
bought this tuner to go with my Yaesu FT-817
fits in a bag with room to spare. it tuned 80-10
Meters with no problem.very eazy to tune and took
a few seconds.I then ran it on my Icom 718 @100 Watts was able to tune my dipole on all bands.
overall nice and simple tuner,opened it inside and all parts and connections looked fantastic
(my personal test of MFJ Products before i buy them).this will be a good seller for them.73
KF6GOM
NO9E Rating: 2003-09-07
As advertised Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This tuner contains 2 ceramic capacitors with about 320 of capacitance and a triple toroid with about 10 turns of GA 16 wire with about 13 microH of inductance. The switch seems miniature. Everything seemed well made. Initially I had doubts about Q of the inductor made of a toroid over such a wide frequency range and made a few tests.

I tried initially tuning an 80m dipole fed by a ladderline, and it was fine on 80 to 10m. For comparison, the automatic tuner in my K2 had problems on 17m. On 40m, wires (but not cores) were getting hot after sending 100W for 20s; on SSB heating was minimal. It seemed though that most of the power was getting through. There was also some heating on 80m. Frankly speaking, I don't know whether a toroid coil in my other portable tuner by Daiwa (3 times heavier) heats up on 40 or 80m.

At one time, I could not get a match and soon found that the antenna was disconnected. The tuner did not arc at any time. Also, lack of match without an antenna indicated that the inductor was not too lossy.

I also tried the tuner in portable conditions with about 15f of wire connected directly to a tuner, a 10 f counterpoise, and a coax between the tuner and the radio looped a few times through a toroid. Again, the tuner worked fine on 10-40 with some heating on 40m.

Tuning is somewhat touchy as the knobs are quite small. Also, labelling inductance as A for the highest inductance is opposite from some other MFJ tuners where A meant the lowest inductance.

In summary, a very small tuner that seems to work well. Probably I would not use it with very high SWR antennas at 100W key down on 40 and 80m.

Ignacy, NO9E
K4AXX Rating: 2003-08-31
Works Well Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I can understand W3SAX's frustration after having to wait 4 weeks for something that broke down almost immediately. My experience with the little tuner is that it works quite well and does the job it was intended to do. Nuff said.