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Reviews For: MFJ-1526 Pular ULTRA MightyGain Dual Band 144/440Mhz

Category: Antennas: VHF/UHF+ Omnidirectional: verticals, mobile, etc

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Review Summary For : MFJ-1526 Pular ULTRA MightyGain Dual Band 144/440Mhz
Reviews: 7MSRP: $139.95
Description:
Pular ULTRA MightyGain Dual Band 144/440Mhz
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0073
N7WLF Rating: 2015-09-09
Great Antenna Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Unlike most owners it seems I decided to waterproof mine before putting it up. A Little silicone grease on the joints and Teflon tape on the threads and its sealed hopefully for good (or as long as the case lasts. Its up 40 feet fed with LMR-600 and I can hit repeaters all over AZ and Simplex 70 plus miles depending on terrain.
AA2HA Rating: 2011-10-12
Worked well at first Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I see that I'm not alone. The antenna replaced an old Diamond and performed well, both in transmit and receive. A few months later, the SWR became erratic. Not a lover of heights, I took the antenna down to inspect it. Water had entered the antenna and corroded the connections. This seems to be problem a lot of folks have with this antenna. I hope MFJ sits up and takes notice of this all too common problem and rectifies it. The antenna seems sturdy and performs well, if they can fix the water issue, they would have a winner.
I also don't like the fact that there is no max wind speed rating, no wind load listed, and no radiation pattern given. If you're using this as repeater antenna this info is vital.
I'm going to replace it with a Comet GP-6 and hope for better luck.
N5SWE Rating: 2009-06-30
Best there is! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
My son purchased one 6 months ago. It works so well that I purchased one also. We are throwing away our J poles and Hentennas. This thing works! We are remote to most repeaters. This is only antenna we tried that gets good reception and transmits as well to repeaters 30 and 50 miles away. My 1526 is on a 10 foot pipe attached to a vent pipe in top of a single story wood building. I am extremly happy with this one! Most important that you use either RG8 or 213 coax, throw away all your RG58U and 8X, it is worthless for anything over 10 feet away. Remember, the antenna (and feed line)is the MOST IMPORTANT part of any receiver or transmiter!
73, Roy
KE5JJC Rating: 2009-02-22
Pushing 2 years of excellent results Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Antenna continues to perform right on the money. It has now been through 3 hurricanes, and multiple microburts and tstorms with nearby tornadoes and has no issues. Transmit and receive are still excellent. I'm still hitting repeaters 90 miles away daily. This is an excellent antenna and coupled with my half inch hardline gives me one of the best signals in S MS. I did the installation by the book and I just don't have any problems of any kind!

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Earlier 5-star review posted by KE5JJC on 2007-07-27

I installed this antenna on top of a 50ft telescoping pole and am using hardline for the 150ft coax run to the shop. My elevation is 275ft. It's very important to read the instructions and follow exactly to avoid damaging parts during assembly. The antenna has been in use now for 4 months and survived 80mph winds in severe thunderstorms. Located in Southern Mississippi I've been able to connect to 59 repeaters on a regular basis - I hit Jackson, Meridian, New Orleans and Mobile on 2 meters all without any problems - and all 90 miles away. I hit 8 repeaters on the 440 band connecting regularly with one 50 miles away. I've also worked simplex 60 miles into Alabama. Lots more to try out with this antenna! Response from other hams in disbelief usually includes the question "would you please repeat your location?" This antenna exceeds my wildest expectations and delivers to the limits of whats theoretically possible based on what I've read. Based on all the aspects of price and performance I highly recomment this antenna!
AI4SU Rating: 2008-12-05
Water Well Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I purchased two of these antennas in 2004. This antenna receives weak signals very well as well as producing a great TX signal. The SWR is also OK.
The problem i had with this antenna was water collecting inside of it at the base. Even during periods of no rain. I even applied marine silicon to every point where one section screws into the other; and every place where rain water can possible enter but water still got inside. A ham told me water was accumulating inside because of condensation. Certain times of the year it get very warm in the day time and cool at night. The temperature inside the antenna was warmer or colder than the temperature outside the antenna. So moisture accumulated on the inner wall inside the antenna and dripped downward to the base of the antenna. This antenna performed very, very well when the inside of it was dry, but when wet the RX and TX was poor.
I discarded both MFJ-1526 and am now using the Cushcraft ARX-2B with no issues with water after two years of use.
KE7ULC Rating: 2008-09-04
Bad news and more Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
What a disappointment. SWR for the 448 MHZ. is 1.9:1 using first MFJ Ant. Analyzer and then verified with diamond SX-1000 SWR meter. I am using 25' of Andrew helix cable and a PolyPhaser lighting arestor. Then hooked up my Diamond Dual Band Ant. and only 1.1:1 SWR. Hard to call this a repeater Ant, and there are no radiation patterns available so Our repeater coordination group could not approve without that information. I still am not able to get info from them phone is always busy or was on hold once for about 30 minutes. tried email but they tell you it can be weeks for a response and they have no voice mail. Today (day 3) one of the radials on the ground plane broke off. I inspected it closely and the others not constructed very well. My Diamond was better built Ant. was not as tall and had less gain. So I have taken it down put my diamond backup and will order from some where else probably Commercial Ant. but not Hustler as they are owned by MFJ. Conclusion: Construction Poor, Service just as bad if not worse I failed to check reviews here first, and now I guess I I have a $165 lighting rod.
W0TRJ Rating: 2004-11-06
Needs Modifications Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I know of three Hams in my area that have bought
this antenna recently, and all of them had to make mods to this antenna because of water getting inside of it.

If you want to buy this antenna you need to
first use some type of glue like JB-Weld and
where the top fiberglass section meets with
the steel ring and also tape all the ring sections
to prevent water getting inside the antenna causing a high SWR.

If I were looking for a VHF or UHF band antenna I would be looking for a one piece type.

W0TRJ 6 Nov 2004