| KU4VQ |
Rating:  |
2005-06-26 | |
| Works on 50 MHZ |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have had my 933 for over a year and use it with a IC-756PRO and a HY-Power 75/40/20 resonant dipole mounted 20 ft above the ground. I can not go higher because of restrictions in my mobile home park. With this set up I am able to tune on 75, 40, 20, 17 and 10 meters for a swr of less than 1.5, I also got a surprise when I got a 1:1 and very decent performance. |
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| MI3IHY |
Rating: |
2005-06-26 | |
| An excellent piece of equipment. |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I have just purchased the MFJ 993 tuner, and, using the MFJ 1700c antenna switch, tune two antennas and three rigs. Performance is excellent, with 1:1 swr achieved in a split second. I would thoroughly recommend the tuner, which in my case has replaced the MFJ-949E. I most certainly would not revert to using the 949E, which in itself is an excellent piece of kit, but for speed and performance the 993 pips everything else to the post. |
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| VA7CRH |
Rating: |
2005-03-07 | |
| Great tuner! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
OK - I've had the tuner for a week. It has some 'issues', which I would neither call shortcomings nor flaws. But there are issues.
After about 150 QSOs in a week with the 993, it DOES learn. It gets better as you use it. It even tunes 30 metres, which my G5RV-jr is not designed for. Granted it is at about SWR 1:1.6, but considering the G5RV-jr is not rated for 30 metres, that's not bad!
Also, considering that now I rate anything above a 1:1.2 SWR rating to be a bad tune, then you get the picture on how one can be spoiled with this tuner. (I worked 7 new countries in the past weekm which may also be due to the DX-contest as well as some decent conditions... but it helped get through a pile-up or two with a very good SWR. I didn't get through all the pileups, and there were some sigs out there which I could hear but not work, but you can't hang that on the tuner!)
The Icom cable is a must. Tuning from the rig's tune-button is infinitely easier than 'manually' starting the tuning process from the 993. The cable also means that the 993 draws power from the rig, which is a nice touch.
The issues? Well, on SSB the power reading from the 993 is impossible to read, as it bumps up and down with the modulation. This happens as well with the SWR reading. On CW the 993 shows the power and SWR properly. Yes, this is a function of the nature of each wave... but... it's an issue.
Also the respective SWR's on the rig and 993 don't always align. Also, does one tune for the least SWR or the most forward power? I tune for the most forward power. Perhaps I don't know enough to figure out why a slightly larger SWR reading actually increases the power. Sometimes a jump from SWR 1:1.6 to 1:2.0 actually causes a CW sig to jump from 50 watts forward power to 110!
All in all, though, an excellent offering from MFJ. If you have the money, it can be picked up for US$240 and is a worry free addition to the shack.
It's full value for a "5" on e-Ham. |
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| VA7FK |
Rating: |
2005-03-03 | |
| Excellent Auto Tuner |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| My station is located on the 4th floor of an apartment building. My antenna is a random wire strung around my bedroom ceiling and the station ground is the center screw on my ac outlet(building ground). I have been usuing a manual tuner with mixed results. After reading many reviews on auto tuners I decided to purchase the MFJ 993. It arrived last week and with some apprehension I hooked it up and started the tune process. With 5 watts into the tuner the SWR of 1:1.0 was obtained on all bands.It rattled a bit at first but the memory feature has taken over and now when I change freq or bands all I hear is 1 click and voila perfect tune.I do not know why I have been fooling around with manual tuners having this kind of technology available. In summary this tuner does what it says it will do and has not skipped a beat once doing it. The cosmetics are good and it would appear that this is one of MFJ's success story. The freq counter or display on CW stays put but on SSB the display wanders due to lack of carrier. I operate CW so this is of no concern to me and does not derate the product. The LCD panel gives me good information and the power meter is bang on. I feel this Auto tuner would compliment any operating position and it sure makes life easy.There is a wide range of auto ant. tuners on the market today coming at all price ranges and having a good look at a lot of these products I am glad I chose the MFJ 993 auto tuner as it did not break the bank and had all the features that I wanted 73 Frank |
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| K6XR |
Rating: |
2005-02-23 | |
| Excellent Tuner |
Time Owned: 6 to 12 months. |
| This is an excellent tuner and one of the best. The other best tuner is the Elecraft kat-100 but it operates only with the k2. MFJ is to be congratulated for a fine product that works as advertised. |
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| KB1IKD |
Rating: |
2005-02-23 | |
| Mine works great |
Time Owned: 3 to 6 months. |
I upgraded from a manual MFJ Tuner Versituner to the MFJ-993. It is installed between my IC-735 and a DX-EE fan dipole or Diamond CP6 vertical. As long as I am careful to reduce power to 15 - 20 Watts while tuning, it tunes 80M - 10 M FB. It will not tune/match if the power setting is very low or too high.
The memory switches the inductance and capacitance settings with a single quick thunk for previously tuned settings upon starting the TX.
If the SWR is not as low as desired after memory tune, pushing the tune button will start the search for a better SWR match. If you QSY to a section of the band that is not a good enough match, it will automatically retune.
The only problem I experienced, diagnostic test indicates failure, was of my own making. Do not try the diagnostic test without first being certain that all buttons on the front panel are in the out position. Any buttons in the in position will cause the diagnostic test to report failure, although there is nothing wrong with the tuner.
I operate digital modes and find that tuning is easier using RTTY than PSK. While in RX, I reduce sound card audio output using the sound card's Windows slider to about 20 Watts, then I go to an unused RTTY section of the band and start RTTY idle TX.
The tuner usually matches with a single thunk after which I raise the audio slider to about 100 Watts output, then switch to RX. Tuning takes about about 5 - 10 seconds.
If I use the tune button for a better SWR match, the MFJ-993 rattles for about 1 - 10 seconds.
After tuning on RTTY, while in RX, I switch to PSK and QSY to the PSK section of the band. On idle TX, the PSK power output is about 40 Watts without lowering the audio drive slider from its 100 Watt RTTY signal (without ALC) setting.
I have found it very easy to get a close match with this tuner compared to the manual tuner. I believe that I have completed more QSOs with weak signal stations using this tuner than the manual tuner. The rig fan comes on less often because of the closer matches, typically 100 Watts out with less than 1 Watt reflected power.
HTH de KB1IKD |
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| K2JF |
Rating: |
2005-02-16 | |
| Love it! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I like to jump around from 40 CW to 17 phone to 20 CW, etc. and have grown tired of retuning manually each time I made a band or mode change. It actually discouraged me from doing what I wanted to be doing. Well, I read the reviews here and got one of these babes for myself and I couldn't be happier with it. You don't even need to read the manual to get started. I have an Alpha Delta DX EE and it tunes everything everywhere - even on 80 meters. I know that tuning a 40 meter antenna on 80 does not make for good efficiency. But at least I can get on 80 for the first time. |
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| N1IV |
Rating: |
2005-02-13 | |
| Works great! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
As others have stated, I was guarded about charging out and buying one of these, partly because of MFJ reviews/reputation and partly from past MFJ experience. However, this particular tuner had great reviews, and a tuned input connection, which I needed.
I have a 270' Loop Skywire fed with 450 ohm ladder line, then to a 4:1 LDG Balun, through 20' of RG8X coax, to an LDG AT-11MP tuner. It tuned very nicely on 75 meters (fundamental), barely O.K. (2.7:1) on 40 Meters and then just O.K. on the rest of the harmonics. I plugged the ladder line directly into the new MFJ, turned it on and it gave me flat SWR's (between 1 and 1.6:1) on 75, 60, 40, 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10 meters. It even brought 160 Meters to 2.1:1 (which totally was off-scale with the LDG).
I also purchased the Icom interface cable and it tunes directly from my IC-756ProIII... slick! I may even connect my triband Yagi to it to help match 12 and 17 meters better. The auto tune function works great as well as the memories... once you've tuned a frequency, it automatically goes to the right position the next time you're there.
The only "chink in MFJ's armor" was, I had to open the tuner as soon as I unpacked it, unsolder the power socket and straighten it. It was so crooked that the power plug would short against the hole in the back of the case if I left it that way. No big deal considering past MFJ experience. Don't be afraid to try this guy out... it's helped make my loop much more efficient! 73 de N1IV |
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| KB6G |
Rating: |
2005-02-04 | |
| works great |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Bought mine from Radio Works who sold me my Carolina Windom 10-80 Special. Only really needed it for 80 meters where VSWR is >5:1, but Icom cautions against using internal tuner for >3:1 which Windom comes close to. Using Icom 746 Pro. Bought interconnect cable so radio would run tuner. First unit didn't quite work right. Called MJF and they advised that I had an early version of the firmware, and Icom had made some changes, so I needed an upgrade. MFJ sent me a new unit and had me send original back so I would not be off the air. New unit works as advertised, and tunes 80 meters as flat as I want, <1.2:1. Meters come in very handy. Handles up to 300 watts so I can ad amp down the road. Carolina Windom does great job with tuner on 10-80. Windom is great too, but subj for another review. |
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| VE7RLH |
Rating: |
2005-01-31 | |
| Great Little Tuner |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| I concur with the other positive reviews of this tuner on this site, I purchased this tuning unit after reading these reviews and I am not sorry I did. I find this tuner to be everything the advertising says it is and more. I run a home brew dipole and a Butternut HF9V vertical and it tunes those two antennas on all the frequencies I transmit on. I am very happy with the convenience of the memories for previously worked frequencies that this tuner has, it is as simple and easy as keying the mike and talking. I give this tuner a full 5 points out of 5. |
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