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Reviews For: MFJ-1922

Category: Antennas: HF Mobile & Accessories

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Review Summary For : MFJ-1922
Reviews: 4MSRP: $80.00
Description:
SCREWDRIVER ANTENNA CONTROLLER WITH DIGITAL COUNTER
Product is in production
More Info: http://MFJ INC.COM
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0042.5
VA3MW Rating: 2008-04-12
Works ... but Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I just picked one of these up to control my High Q 3-80RT. I opened the box and found the wiring was about something I would use to power an HF rig.

First thing I did was to get rid of all the wiring that it came with. I did notice they have added chokes and bypass caps on all the leads which sounds like an improvement. I put a better quality and more flexible wire on the control box and replaced the strain through fittings with ones that actually fit. The constuction looks like some HAM's first electronic project (no offense to some hams, but for a company that does this for an industry, it was just awful).

The back of the display was all cold soldered. About what I expect from MFJ's quality control (there is none).

It does control my HighQ antenna just fine, but the noice on the radio is 40db over S9 while tuning (not sure if that is the antenna motor or the MFJ1922). The 1922 did not seem to be affected by RF, so maybe they fixed that.

I will likely replace this with a turbo tuner pretty shortly.
AC5AA Rating: 2007-06-02
RF sensitive, but works Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have used one of these for two years now with my Hi-Q 3/80RT mobile antenna. It has some construction issues (middle LED digit does not plug in securely so all segments don't always light - pressing it in restores it. Also, the wire bundle coming out of the side is too large to allow the plastic cable grommet to fit correctly, leaving the bundle without stress relief. Also, it tends to be sensitive to RF, so, for example, in my installation, on 17 meters when I transmit full power, it increments the counter when it should not be moving. My solution after ferrites didn't help is to just turn it off after I'm tuned. It requires full power from the rig to cause the problem - on the 10% tuning power it is not a problem. Still, while this will bring you close to resonance, you'll still need to watch an SWR meter while you tweak it in. This can be dangerous in traffic, so be careful. On the higher bands, the nulls are broader than on the lower bands (30m, 40m, 80m) where they are sharp nulls. For these, you might want to pull over out fo traffic until you're tuned. I only mention this because while this tuner will return you to almost exactly the place you want to go for each band, the tweakingwill still be required on the lower bands. Forewarned is forearmed. Despite the design and EMI issues, it works pretty well towards it's design goal. (Note: due to the safety issues described, I have purchased an automatic tuner to replace the 1922.)
K7JJ Rating: 2007-02-14
No good! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I bought this controller to use with my Hi-Q 4/80 RT antenna and IC-7000. It is very susceptible to RF. I used snap on ferrites at each end of motor control wires. At first, the readout would increment on the higher freq's when transmitting (not tuning the coil). I was usually able to reset the counter as the specs required, but now the display is stuck and won't move no matter what I do. The only thing that works is the up down switch.

By the way, I always tune the antenna with about 10 watts applied.

MFJ offers to replace the unit under warranty, but they never gave me a solution that I could try without a return. I'm afraid a new unit will yield same results.

Other Hi-Q users report similar results. RF is the culprit. MFJ should build in some RFI filtering.
N0JSN Rating: 2005-07-01
Works very good but not allways exact Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This screwdriver turns counter works exceptionally well but is not always exact every time but will get you close when tuning with it. found out the hard way that RF will affect it and make the counter go wild! which could mess things up in a hurry. I use it on my 3inch Hi-Q screwdriver and found out you will need some ferrites and don't run the wires for the controller close to your coax run. I found that as little as 20 watts cw key down was enough to make the controller go crazy just a counting away when the screwdriver motor isn't even turning.So make sure you look at your swr meter just to make sure your swr is where it should be. If anyone else has experienced this problem e-mail me and let me know your cure for the problem at N0JSN@msn.com