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Reviews For: MFJ 844 V/UHF SWR meter

Category: SWR & Wattmeters & Dummy Loads

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Review Summary For : MFJ 844 V/UHF SWR meter
Reviews: 3MSRP: ~60
Description:
Compact Dual Band 144/440 SWR/Wattmeter
Product is in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0031.3
KB3LNM Rating: 2008-09-28
Doesn't work Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
The meter was purchased in winter 2007 seems to read power accurately, but SWR does not work. My meter reads 1.2:1 for any type of load.

I removed the back cover and looked at the construction. There is a variable resistor (VR1) soldered down that appear to be shorting out the coupler tracks on the board. Some of the solder joints look questionable.

N6YB Rating: 2005-05-19
problems solved Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Evidently the product defects described above have been fixed. I compared mine to a CE certified commercial meter and the MFJ read 10% high which is good enough for ham use. The SWR graph is only calibrated for full scale deflection on the forward power. This is no real problem as the reverse direction indicates twice the power (on the forward power scale) as is really being reflected. So just halve the reverse power reading as read on the forward scale and divide by the forward power. This will give you the return loss. Then remember the following: 25% return is 3:1 SWR, 10% return is 2:1 SWR, and 3% is about 1.4:1 SWR.
K5DVW Rating: 2005-04-07
Never got one which worked Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I ordered one of these new from one of the large ham outlets. When I got it, it didnt work. I couldnt get the meter to deflect into any load. I even built up some special 50 Watt 2:1 and 3:1 resistive loads which I measured on an HP vector network analyzer. MFJ meter showed nothing still.


So, I sent it back and got a second one. Same thing, it didnt work. I called MFJ directly and sent it to them and they sent me another one. It didnt work either. I sent it back for a refund after having to pay shipping 3 times.

But, get this, I borrowed one from a friend who used his for a VHF antenna install. He said his antenna was perfectly matched, 1:1 SWR! I checked his meter and it was broken too in the same way! I guess no meter deflection at all looks kind of like a 1:1 VSWR.

Amazing! Four different units with the same problem out of the box.