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Reviews For: MFJ-974H Balance Line Tuner

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : MFJ-974H Balance Line Tuner
Reviews: 31MSRP: 190
Description:
The MFJ-974H is a fully balanced true balanced line antenna tuner. It gives you superb current balance throughout its very wide matching and frequency range.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.mfjenterprises.com/products.php?prodid=MFJ-974H
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00314.2
KA9CAR Rating: 2005-12-16
Good so far Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
12/15/2005 I purchased the tuner used on Ebay, from a ham that claimed he never hooked it up. (I believe him, see below). I do not know the vintage of this unit, but it is NOT the B version currently in production. It is a keeper, I am happy with it.

I started by opening the unit to see what it looked like, and make sure it was in good condition. I discovered that the knob for the antenna adjustment was turning, but the capcitors were not moving. I determined that the knob had no set screw in it, and since when I installed a screw, it pushed chips out of the hole, I assume it never had a set screw.

With the knobs both working, I unhooked my (modified to cover wider ranges) Johnson Matchbox from my 90 foot dipole fed with 450 ohm line, and put the MFJ in its place. For comparison, a 60 meter half wave dipole would be 87 feet.

I found that I could tune up from 160 through 10. The manual tells you NOT to tune a dipole shorter than a half wave due to the risk of arcing, but I had no trouble with 100 Watts on 160 and 80. It was a "peaky" on the bands where the dipole is less than a half wave, but no more so than the Johnson.

Satisfied that the tuner was working, I put my Johnson back in line, and moved the MFJ to its intended task of tuning a horizontal loop.

I estimate the loop is 275 feet long. It is strung through trees with out insulators, but it is insulated wire. Hieght varies from 15 to 30 feet. It is fed with 300 ohm T.V. line.

The 974H easily tuned 160, and all bands up to 17. I have not tried higher bands yet, but I have no reason to expect a problem.

So far I am happy with the Tuner. It is easier to use than my modified (5 knobs to tune) Matchbox to cover the same antennas. Settings were easy to repeat. I did not run any direct A/B comparisons. I was able to get the match under 1.2 under all conditions I tested.

The cross needle SWR reads SLIGHTLY higher SWR than my Autek WM-1. The forward meters agree on forward power. The difference in the SWR readings is not significant.

It is about time some one produced a reasonably priced balanced tuner, seeing as Johnson quit making them over 40 years ago!

KA9CAR
K1CT Rating: 2005-08-08
Good Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Purchased MFJ974H from HRO today. Like others I found the power meter floating inside the 974H upon unpacking. Opened the 974H up to secure the meter and accomplished that easily with a #1 Philips. While inside I found that one power meter solder terminal was rubbing on a plastic gear for the transmitter capacitor bank - bent the terminal over and problem solved. Saw that the capacitors in each bank are about 10 degrees out of alignment (i.e. when one is fully meshed it's mate is about 10 degrees unmeshed). And what's this a scratch in the paint on the left side of my new tuner? The components are of good quality. The design appears to be good. Electronic assembly could use a bit more QC. My recommendation to MFJ is: make items like this available in a kit option so the owner can assemble it with the pride of ownership that he/she desires. I now proceed to actually try it out on my 87.5' on a side dipole ... I'm looking forward to trying out 160 meters (which my Nye-Viking Matchbox didn't offer).
KC5NWS Rating: 2005-07-22
a good tuner Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Always wanted a balanced tuner so when mfj came out with the 974 i picked one up. Put up a 100 foot dipole fed with ladder line, built some thru the wall connectors out of threaded rod , nuts and bolts and i was on the air.Works fine, all bands are close to 1:1 or 1:1.No problems. I like it. w5wlb
N7ESE Rating: 2005-05-09
Low price, Decent performance Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Meter was flopping around inside the chassis when it arrived by UPS. It was even well packaged! A few minutes later it(the meter) was returned to the appropriate place in the face plate. This simple repair was an opportunity to check out the internals. I use it to couple a 17 meter EDZ fed with 450 ohm ladderline on 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 30 and 40 meters. Seems to be performing well so far(around 200 QSOs). Not exactly Mil-spec quality, but the cost is low and performance is acceptable. If it is reliable for many years, I will be pleased.
WA5KPE Rating: 2004-09-16
Very Pleased : Works As Advertised Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have owned the MFJ-974H for two weeks and the Cobra Ultralite for several months. I use the tuner with a Cobra Ultralite 80 doublet with the stock 100 foot 450 ohm ladder feedline and a SGC-2020 DSP2 usually at 10 watts. The antenna is supported by pine trees in the middle and on the ends at a height of 35 feet with black dacron line. In my severely restricted neighborhood the Cobra has proven an excellent stealth antenna as it is almost impossible to see against a background of trees. Even the center insulator and ladder line are nearly invisible against a pine tree trunk. I completely assemble and disassemble my station (except the antenna which stays up) every time I use it because I operate from my patio usually with battery power. The station is ungrounded. The banana plug sockets on the tuner are extremely handy for my purposes. I use the Radio Shack binding post banana plugs which I remove from the feedline. I just coil the feedline at the base of the tree when not in use. This is an extremely simple and durable setup. There is nothing to corrode. All of the antenna hardware is stainless steel.

The radio/tuner/antenna combo work according to the SWR meter on the tuner and confirmed by the SWR meter on my radio as follows:

1.850 MHz - SWR 1.1 : 1
3.700 MHz - SWR 1.0 : 1
7.040 MHz - SWR 1.0 : 1
10.105 MHz - SWR 1.2 : 1
14.050 MHz - SWR 1.0 : 1
18.100 MHz - SWR 1.3 : 1
21.050 MHz - SWR 1.5 : 1
24.900 MHz - SWR 1.0 : 1
28.200 MHz - SWR 1.2 : 1

I had been using an ancient MFJ-941 which worked but would not match anywhere close to as well as this.

I am very pleased with this radio/antenna/tuner combination. Using my 10 watts in relatively uncrowded conditions I am usually able to make contact with any station that I can hear.
DH5AAV Rating: 2004-07-01
It works Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Get mine today and tried it out.
The antenna i use is a dipol with
each leg 44 ft long and 15 ft 450 ohm
Wireman to feed.The dipol is a little
bit folded under the roof of the house,
like this
I---------XX---------I
I---------- ----------I
XX is the feedpoint.
Can match all bands from 160-10m with
SWR 1:1.Get mutch louder signals on the
bands as before with a 1:4 Balun and Coax
feed in the Auto-Tuner of my TS570DG.
The only problem is that the left knob
was to close to the housing,so i have to
adj.it a little bit.
So far so good
73 de Tom DH5AAV
W2BPI Rating: 2004-06-15
Trouble at first Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Could not get it to load either my zepp or double extended zepp on any band. Tried adjusting feedline length. Still no work!
Took a look inside and discovered the band switch was mounted 180 degrees from where it should have been. Therefor switch was wired wrong and taps were not being switched correctly. I unsoldered coil and turned switch 180 degrees. Then soldered the taps to the correct switch posistions. Now it will load all bands. Hope this is of some help to anyone having difficulty. I also have a Johnson Matchbox which I modified and it works very good. Only it will not tune 6 meters.
KC2JMY Rating: 2004-06-14
Works as advertised Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I picked up a 974H at Dayton this year and I recently installed a 325' horizontal loop antenna fed by 450 ohm window line.
I have been able to successfully get the 974H to tune the loop from 160 to 6 meters including several test points within each band. SWR was 1:1 or very close to it at all test points.
I have had no mechanical or other problems with the unit.
So far, so good !
G0VHS Rating: 2004-06-07
Could be better! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Gooday.
I have had mine now for two weeks. On receipt of the unit from the states the transmitter knob had come loose and caused me a nightmare trying to tune up. On inspection it was quite clear that the nylon shaft had been cut off too short. No worries, unscrewed the case, and pushed the shaft through to gain some "purchase".
I was amazed...inside the casing was a lot of wire pieces that had come from stripping the Teflon coax back during manufacture. Fully Hoovered, and now fine.

On a plus side, the tuner works fultlessly, matching any frequency I can chuck at my open wire fed 110' (6m to 160m).

So in conclusion, does what it says, pretty well, but be prepared to do the remedial work that really should have been doen during the QA stages.

Terry
G0VHS
WB8VGE Rating: 2003-12-27
Ah Poop! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Well, I really wanted one. And now that I have it, ithe MFJ 974 tuner is nothing to write home to mom about.

I used a center feed zepp with 80 feet of wire on each end. Tuning the antenna is hard to do. Trying to get a match on 80 meters is a real pain. There's no "sweet spot" that just falls into place.

It's not the antenna, my old ten tec antenna tuner tunes the antenna in a heart beat. Just tune the controls for max noise and you're very close to a match.

I can't seem to find a point on this tuner where the noise increases to put the tuner close to where the antenna matches.

the MFJ quality problems are still alive and kicking too.

Knobs were placed on way to tight and were rubbing the front panel. The paint is thin and the silk screen is murky.

But to be fair, this unit is built better than some fo the MFJ products I have owned.

It's just too bad the tuner does not work like it should.