| K4PDM |
Rating:      |
2015-03-31 | |
| Good tuner for the money! |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
MFJ gets a lot of flack for their equipment but if you understand its limitations and don't get a defective unit to begin with, the products are worth the money. I am very pleased with the new 989D I bought a month ago. I've made dozens of contacts with powers up to a kilowatt and had no problem. The meter is dead on with a Bird slug I borrowed at the 1000 watt level.
A used Palstar might be better...but it might not be. No way to know how much power might have been put through it, or if the meter works right, or if it had been hot-switched...Point being, unless you know the history of a used tuner, you're taking your chances. With a new MFJ, you've got the warranty.
My other tuner is a really old MFJ 986 with the split capacitor design, and the 989D will match on bands where the 986 had difficulty. One tip--it is well known that this type of tuner can show an SWR minimum at more than one adjustment. On my tuner, after tuning with low power and applying 700 to 1000 watts input, the reflected power meter will suddenly peg if I'm on one of the wrong dip points. I don't suppose it is designed to do this, but that's what happens on mine, and I know to re-tune for a dip more in line with the recommended settings.
Con: It is somewhat misleading to use a 3-digit turn counter that maxes out before the hundreds digit can change, actually utilizing only two of the digits. No problem, just a weird choice.
Different tuners react differently to different loads and I don't know if this is the perfect tuner for you. For me, with a 400-foot doublet fed with a 9:1 balun and ladderline, and an elevated Hustler 5BTV vertical, it is working quite well.
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| K8AC |
Rating:    |
2015-01-08 | |
| Poorly executed design |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Recently acquired one of these tuners second-hand. On the bright side, it was able to achieve a match for my ladder-line fed dipole (80M) on all bands, 80 thru 10. No arcing was observed when running 1,500 watts on all bands. Here are the things I found lacking:
1. Poor rotary inductor counter: counts full revolutions with its three digits. A good counter will count 1/10 of a revolution and have 4 or 5 digits. The result is that it's not possible to reposition the inductor without putting a signal on the air.
2. Poor resetability for capacitor knobs: In order to be able to reset the adjustments you really need dial graduations of 0 to 100. Here, the dial graduations are limited to 20 and again you have to put a signal on the air to reset the positions accurately.
3. Meter adjustments: This best illustrates the typical MFJ problem. The meter board, with its four adjustable pots, is located on the floor of the unit between the two capacitors and under the switch shaft. On the bottom of the cabinet, there's a hole through which one would suspect you could adjust the pots, but, the pots are not accessible from there because they're mounted on the top of the circuit board and there are no holes in the board beneath the pots. You'll have to pull the shaft to get to a couple of the pots. And, you'll have to guess which one does what as they're not mentioned in the manual and there's no schematic for the meter board.
You can significantly improve the operation of the tuner by replacing the inductor counter (significant front panel surgery required) and installing Jackson Brothers vernier drives on the capacitors. You can buy the dial scales for the drives from Palstar for a reasonable price and re-use the MFJ knobs. More front panel surgery required to fit the verniers. If you're thinking of buying one of these tuners new, consider instead a used Palstar. |
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| FORMER_W3AMF |
Rating:      |
2014-12-19 | |
| I Like It. |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
It is attractive, lightweight, and easy-to-use. It appears to use quality components and be well-built. The manual is thorough and easy-to-understand. The meter is easy to see and appears to be reasonably accurate. The 300 watt dummy load works, but it would be nice if it could handle more power.
I may have received a "good one" because I have not experienced any of the problems that other hams are writing about. MFJ appears to have a record of inconsistent quality, so I will not dispute those who criticize this unit.
I use it to tune a ground-mounted Hustler vertical (80-10 meters/WARC) and an Alpha Delta DX-A (160-40 meters/WARC) installed as an inverted V. I cannot tune 20, 15, or 10 meters with the DX-A, but that is not the fault of the tuner. It works well with my Mosley TA-33JR, but unless I am running an amplifier I don't use it with that antenna. I have not tried it with balanced or single wire antennas.
Maximum output power from my Yaesu FL-2100Z is about 800 W PEP SSB and 700 W CW. The tuner does not even get warm with that power applied.
I created a tuning chart for each antenna and for each band. To change bands or to make wide excursions within a band I adjust the controls to the settings specified on my chart and I have an instant match. I occasionally may make minor adjustments to get an even lower SWR, but that step is not necessary.
It is reasonably priced and is an effective tuner.
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Earlier 5-star review posted by W3AMF on 2012-01-13
Perhaps I have not had mine long enough to experience the problems some guys are complaining about. Mine loads an A-Delta DX-A, an 8-band, gnd mtd DX Engineering vertical, and a Mosley TA-33Jr with ease. It gives me 12 and 18 meter coverage on my old tribander. For some reason, it will not load the DX-A on 1.900 - 2.000 Mhz. It runs cool with 500 W CW and 600 W PEP output. I made a detailed tuning chart (Excel) for the 3 antennas on all bands. The settings work, the tuning is repeatable, and I can change bands QUICKLY. I load it at 25 W output, then go to 100W. I, then, know that it will be ready for my Amp Supply LA-1000A if I choose to use it. The manual is excellent. |
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| A65BK |
Rating:  |
2014-09-02 | |
| Very Bad |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Last week I received my 989D from Gigaparts and when opened found the roller is slipping from the inductor coil and so not able to use. Reported the defect to vendor and await their response and process to get a replacement.inductor and associated counter designed very badly. |
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| W8NWN |
Rating:   |
2014-08-29 | |
| BAD COUNTER |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
The counter on the inductor must have been bad from the start. It slipped and clicked right off. Nicely built unit but I could not use.
I am sure it was an easy fix for the factory, but not for me. I dont believe in working on new equipment.
Sent it back and got another brand. (for more money) |
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| KI4DW |
Rating:      |
2014-07-03 | |
| 11 years old and works great! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| Bought the 989D a long time ago and have had no problems at all. Huge caps, smooth inductor, meter very accurate. Just getting ready to install LED for panel meter. I have run 1500 watts extended with no issues. This tuner is beefy and can stand up to the job at hand. |
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| W7XY |
Rating:   |
2014-04-15 | |
| Not Happy |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have had several MFJ tuners and the trouble is the meters quit after a short time. If they just used a little better quality diodes in the meter circuit is all it would take to correct the problem. When I called them they offered to send me the replacement diodes free but I have had enough of this type of doing business. I like an American Company doing their production here but I won't buy any more products from them after this practice. I have bought many of their products in my years as an Amateur and the older items seemed to work just fine until I had the experience with their tuners. |
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| WB0AQW |
Rating:     |
2014-02-12 | |
| Would Recommend |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Granted, I just got the tuner. It was packaged very well in a good heavy box with the tuner ensconced in styro foam. My first impression was that MFJ cares about the product enough to properly package it.
Upon opening the box and unpacking the tuner, I hear a rattle inside the tuner. I had already determined that I would remove the cover and do a thorough inspection of the solder joints, nuts and bolts and all other components. So I wasn't over concerned about the rattle. While the product was still in the plastic bag I saw the source of the rattle. I found a bolt and when I took it out of the bag, I found it's accompanying nut in the bag as well.
I removed the cover and my impression was very favorable. The paint was nice, the bolts were threaded into threaded holes as opposed to using metal cutting screws. Well done, MFJ. The source of the loose bolt and nut was found to be one of the four bolts that mount the Antenna capacitor. It probably didn't get fully snugged upon assembly and rattled loose during shipment. A pretty understandable slip through QC. I will give them a semi pass on it but did lower my rating.
The rest of the interior was immaculate. The solder joints were well done. The capacitors moved smoothly with just enough drag to hold a setting easily. The roller inductor was also very smooth and turned quietly and accurately. Checked other fasteners all of which appeared to be snugged down properly. So far, my opinion is that this is a nice piece of equipment which seems to be well built.
Now was the time for the rubber to meet the road. I like to work 3.740.00 Mhz for rag chewing with a group. So trimmed my antenna for resonance on this frequency. But I also enjoy BPSK31 on 3.580.15 Mhz and at this part of the band, my antenna exhibits a 5:1 SWR. Tuning this portion of the band to 1:1 was absolutely effortless. Using the manual's suggested starting points, it took less then a minute to have my TS850S loving that portion of the band. Other bands I've set up on were just as easy and on 75 Meters I applied my SB-220 Linear into the MFJ 989D and everything just worked to perfection.
I can't say yet what things will be like in a year or so. But I know how I treat my radio equipment and I'm convinced that a year from now I will say the same thing.
Are there better tuners out there? Of course, but for the money, the 989D is pretty hard to beat. I also own the MFJ 4245 power supply and if the 989D performs like the power supply I will be a happy camper.
If you aren't independently wealthy and you would like to have a tuner that can handle way more than just what your transceiver puts out, the MFJ-989D is an highly recommended option in my opinion.
There have been many unfavorable reviews of this tuner but to date, I have been unable to discover their foundation.
Remember, a tuner doesn't fix the antenna. It only makes your transceiver happy by having it feeding a proper load. If your antenna sucks, after tuning your tuner for minimum swr, the antenna will still suck. |
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| KG2S |
Rating:   |
2013-12-25 | |
| Repeat Meter Problems! |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| For the second time in less than a year, the meter on my MFJ-989D has stopped working. I sent it back under warranty to MFJ for the first repair. Now the meter has failed again and I am out of warranty. From what I can see on the schematic and the numerous user reports from other owners, I believe that D202 (1N34A) is the problem. When I removed the cover to look over the circuit board, I noted the components are facing the rear of the tuner case and you can’t easily check for problems. It looks like a bit of work just to troubleshoot the meter circuit and repair it. As you have probably guessed, I am not too impressed with a tuner that needs repair [again]. |
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| FORMER_KL7EU |
Rating:    |
2013-12-20 | |
| Not great, but acceptable |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Having read the reviews previously, I decided to open the cover on my new unit to inspect before using it. I found a piece of 2" long bare 18-ga hookup wire floating loose inside, which conceivably could cause problems. Most of the solder joints look ok but I will redo some. The quality of the caps and roller inductor is good but not "top drawer", they're just "ok". (no ceramic insulators are used, just cheaper material that looks like fiberglass) The winding on the balun looks to be a little carelessly done...it's a little sloppy and loose on the toroid core. And, the indicated power from my TS-140S reads 120 watts into the built-in dummy load...about 20w too high. When I attempted to adjust the indicated power I found there is a 1/4" shaft directly in the way of the trim-pot adjustment...you can't access it...MFJ really screwed up in the location of that. I will temporarily remove the shaft to get this adjustment done, but just needing to have to do this on a brand-new tuner is really aggravating. This unit will do the job, but be prepared to do your own QC if you get one of these. My $.02 worth. |
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