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Reviews For: MFJ-989D 3kW Roller Inductor Antenna Tuner

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : MFJ-989D 3kW Roller Inductor Antenna Tuner
Reviews: 75MSRP: 359.95
Description:
Updated version of the MFJ-989C Roller Inductor Antenna Tuner.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.mfjenterprises.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00753.4
KE8G Rating: 2011-07-07
Very good tuner Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I've had this tuner now for almost a year and it works great. If you take your time and start with low power; 10 - 20 watts, then there is no problem tuning it. I've been able to run about 600 watts using it and no problems.

I love the cross needle SWR/watt feature, it gives a lot of information at glance. The only thing I might say that I wish was different would be a bigger meter!

I would recommend this tuner to anyone who is in the market for a high-power tuner.

73 de Jim - KE8G
K0HWY Rating: 2011-07-06
Not recommended Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Perhaps it's just my bad luck, if you believe in luck. I don't. This is the second and last MFJ-989D I've tried in the past two months. There's quite a price step between this tuner and some of the comparable units offered by other manufacturers. But I would recommend spending the extra $200 and save yourself the frustration and grief I've been through. There are some decent MFJ products on the market but this isn't one of them.
K6LO Rating: 2011-07-06
Money left over for spray paint... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
It literally has some rough edges, but at street prices just over $300 I think this unit is a good value. You get a decent antenna switch, a modest dummy load, and a pretty good SWR/PEP watt meter along with the matching network guts.

It has been over a decade since I purchased an MFJ product, but upon arrival of my 989D from DX Engineering, my muscle memory immediately kicked-in, and my arm unconsciously grabbed a screwdriver and began unfastening the top cover allowing me to perform the inside assembly check. All good and tight. Roller and caps? The caps and roller are smooth turning, and the roller has a good contact arrangement. The caps have smooth plates and nice wipers.

Nothing about the insides of the 989D says it would be happy matching a super low Z load, nor should one really want to. So don't. With that in mind, the manual looks like it was written by a realist, not a marketing person, and offers some good advice to keep bad things from happening.

So I got mostly what I was expecting, an all in one tuner that can safely handle sensible matching problems at my station and does not get warm when I turn on my Alpha. So why the 4 rating?

Now I know it's an MFJ, and I was not expecting a Ferrari finish, but I really think the top cover was fabricated with a Sawz-All, the edges filed, and then hit with touch-up paint. And it also only "kinda" fits. I think MFJ can do better, and still keep prices down. I am going to ask them for a better cover, and hope they have one. If not, for the price, I don't mind buying a can of spray paint.



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KENLETSON Rating: 2011-01-30
Nice Tunner Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
This is one nice tunner for the Buck$! Love the Peak Power Meter. I checkced it out when installing battery and you can tell it is a quality product. I have been using over 6 months, No arcing ect. Guy that said screw was stripped most lickly did it while putting it on. (Such a minor thing) They are using sheet metal screws for the cover which makes sence. I reccomend this to any Ham! Built in dummy load is also a nice feature.
KE5VNX Rating: 2010-12-30
Better Much Better Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Not a bad tuner. No quality issues. I contacted MFJ once about the manual that didn't come with it from DX Engineering and I received it in three days. Looks good in the shack. I use it on a G5RV and a home brewed antenna. It Has a short counter from 0 to 89, this makes it nice and fast to tune.
K0XX Rating: 2010-11-01
Excellent Value Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I find this tuner to be an excellent value; $319 from DX Engineering. In fairness, I did not like the appearance of several solder joints and re-worked them. BUT, the tuner performs quite well, mated with my Acom 1000. The "MFJ home-brew" variable caps and air-roller inductor are plenty stout to handle the legal limit.

I use the tuner with both resonant and non-resonant antennas. No issues at all.
ND4Z Rating: 2010-08-23
Good Tuner for $bucks$ Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Come on guys! Never tune any amp or tuner off resonance to start off, always start off with the lowest power level to get a swr reading and gradualy work your way up from qrp to qro. The best made amps or tuners will smoke if you are dumb enough to apply high power levels when the load is way of resonance.
So if you are stupid and try and load a MFJ 989D or other tuner for that matter into a high SWR and it goes up in a puff of smoke don't blame the manufacture, but blame your self.
I have been using my MFJ Model 989-D Tuner for a year now with my legal limit Ameritron AL 1500 watt linear amp on all bands 10 to 80 meters.
Never had a problem flash over, or arcing and barking. I am very satisfied with the product for the price, and recomend it to anyone on a limited budget wanting to run legal limit at limited mismatched loads, but if you operate on 160 meters and have a low load point imped. of 10 ohms or less be careful. For low ohm imp. on 160 at legal limit I would suggest it's big brother the MFJ 992 with a big heavy edge wound inductor or better yet if you can afford it the Palstar 4K for the big guns with the big bucks! Remember, in Tuners you get what you pay for indeed. So don't expect a lot from light weight components in the cheaper priced tuners, which work well at QRP and less than 100 watts. For QRO and 1.5 KW and 160 meters you might want to consider a bigger expensive tuner. By the way, forget the ad for 3 kw roller inductor tuner, It's not even close. That term was from the good old days and it referd to the input power peak to peak into the linear amp. Which can be less than one half the actual power output. MFJ's rating of 1500 watt on the newer ads is about the most the tuner will safely do on 160 meters.
K2SRB Rating: 2010-07-24
No problems with unit out of the box Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have been using this tuner with an Ameritron 80 B for almost a year. No problems out of the box and to date not one problem. I checked the unit over rather well. No loose nuts etc. Using an 80 meter loop I have been happy with the tuning results. Really sad to see a 3.2 rating overall. I give it a 5 hands down.
K2HVE Rating: 2010-06-26
MFJ Helped my 989D Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Update from my prior post. I contacted MFJ and they appologised for the problems with the new 989D. Richard at MFJ said he would send me e new counter assembly which i recieved. The Tuner is now fine,thanks Richard, MFJ Tuners are used all over the ham radio world , they just need some better Quality Control.

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Earlier 3-star review posted by K2HVE on 2010-06-20

Just got this tuner into the shack. First, of one of the screws were stripped and cross threaded on the top so that was my first problem before installing the 9v battery. Second one of the pressed on cover nuts came off. Third the tuner is pretty good up to the Inductance counter part, counter is piece of junk , keeps skipping does not reset evenly. Counter handle is flea market quality and inductance coil is a problem to keep from going to far and having it go off coil. I will call MFJ and request a new counter assembly.
The tuner took alot to make it right and that should not be for almost 4 bills! Once i made the ajustments it seems to do a Great job, though.Let's see what happens when i call MFJ. I've returned other items and there was no problem getting my money back. If MFJ put a little more quality in their product they would be a great supplier! Their tuners are known the world over, had a 962c and it was A#1. They cut corners where they shouldn't, penny wise and dollar foolish.
KG0MN Rating: 2010-06-11
No Problems Yet Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Upon arrival I took the cover off to check to make sure that all of the things that should be tight were. I found three nuts that were not even finger tight and once those were fixed I put the lid back on and have not had it off since. As someone stated earlier the key to keeping the meter working is tune it with low wattage before turned the amp on. If you try to tune the amp with high SWR and high wattage the sympathy stops here. Use so common sense and it should work okay. We hope...