| N4LQ |
Rating:      |
2010-06-07 | |
| Very Pleased |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
I have 100 feet of underground coax (BuryFlex) from the shack to an outbuilding where the MFJ-998 is located. The tuner is mounted on an outside wall. The antenna wire feeds out through the wall then goes up 60 feet to a pulley on the tree limb and horizontally 40 feet to another support. 2 elevated wires act as radials/counterpoise. I power the MFJ with a 12vdc supply at the tuner. I ran a pair of wires from the PS AC source, underground to the shack where I have a switch mounted on the desk. The AC also controls a large relay that disconnects and grounds the antenna when not in use.
The tuner finds a match quickly on 160 through 10 meters of less than 1.2:1. I run 1200 watts CW. Not only does the tuner perform well but the antenna is awesome, providing a nice pattern for DX on all bands.
The rig is an Elecraft K3. No control cables are needed to the tuner. Pushing the "tune" button on the K3 causes 10 watts to activate the tuner. If your rig doesn't have this feature, just reduce power to under 20 watts and hold the key for a few seconds while a match is being found. That's all there is to it. Interface cables are not necessary!
Of course, being 100 ft. away from the tuner, I can't see it's nice meter and display but who cares? The SWR meter here in the shack says 1:1 and that's what I'm after.
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| K6RJP |
Rating:     |
2009-12-30 | |
| Good for the price point |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
I'm using this with an IC-746Pro, Sb-220, Hy-Gain TH3 and a home brew base loaded 21 foot vertical.
It is completely interfaced with the rig cord and the amp T/R. I first just hit the TUNE button on the rig. It tuned but at off center frequency for the beam it gave me a 1.6 at the rig while the tuner displayed 1.5. The ICOM folded back power.
I then read the book ! Adjusted the target to 1.3 and then manually touched up the match. The memory retains the settings. If you are trying to tune into an extreme mismatch you have to manually get it in the ballpark before it will "autoTune" Few other quirks but I push 1400 watts to it and overall it is worth the price. |
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| N4ZKF |
Rating:  |
2009-10-17 | |
| Typical MFJ |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Called MFJ, asked if they had the tuner and a FT-2000 cable in stock. He said let me look. Came back, "yep" got them right here. I said here you go, here is my card, send them to me. I told him every time I have ordered something from MFJ, it's been a problem. He said that didn't surprise him. WHAT?? Got the tuner, no cable. They back ordered it! Unreal? So, I said I'd do the tuner alone till then. I fired it up, A brick. Long story. Got the man who designed it on the phone. Said I needed a Bird meter, tools and needed to calibrate it, that it had issues. (No kidding) For $699 I wasn't opening it! Back in the box it went, and back to MFJ. Should have known better. EVERY TIME. They ARE consistent. I'll say that. Typical MFJ. Nice country folk to talk to, nice design idea, lousy QC department. Never again. Went back to my Palstar and good to go. |
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| W4RAA |
Rating:      |
2009-07-11 | |
| Great Tuner/works well |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
| Have had my 998 for a month now, no problems setting it up, use both a YAESU FT 1000 MP Mark V Field and Kenwood FT 870 with the 998. Also use the MFJ 5114Y3 and MFJ 5114K Rig Interface cables, no problems with these also. I have a G5RV and a Tennadyne T6 connected to the 998 and it tunes both up in less then 2 seconds. Great product for the money. |
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| W1MH |
Rating:      |
2009-07-11 | |
| Great Product. Excellent Auto Tuner |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
| I have owned two MFJ 998 IntelliTuners for over two years. These units have operated flawlessly and are an excellent addition to my remote and local station operations. I can simply apply a 50 watt carrier and the tuner immediately sets up on the frequency of interest. I can then turn on the power amplifier and seems to handle full legal limit with no problem. I also have a great deal of respect for the folks at MFJ. I could not be happier. |
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| DL8OBF |
Rating:     |
2008-11-20 | |
| Great product, poor production quality |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
The concept of this tuner is great, especially that it bypasses the amp for tune.
However MFJ has a poor production quality. I own two of these tuner for SO2R. On one the cynch-PTT was short-cutted. I had similar problems with other MFJ equipment. Why does MFJ not invest in decent soldering courses for their staff and get some quality assurance in place ? I think this would make a big difference! |
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| ON4BHQ |
Rating:     |
2008-10-27 | |
| Does the job |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
This tuner works fine. I tested it hard during the CQWW SSB 2008. Running 750 Q's with 1 KW this should be a good burn in test. The tuner survived without any problem.
From time to time, as Dub, N5NXX mentioned, I also get the "Huh, increase power" or "Oops, decrease power" msg, mostly after switching to another band. Pushing the "TUNE" button is required to make it run again. Strange as the tuner is in autotune mode?
Something about the meter. The analog crossneedle meter is worthless in SSB (same problem as N5NXX), the digital readout is a little better, but still not accurate enough. Perhaps MFJ can solve this by making a software update?
Still the MFJ-998 is worth the money. With a good meter it gets 5/5, but now I can't go any further as a 4/5 score. |
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| N5NXX |
Rating:    |
2008-10-21 | |
| Pretty Fair Tuner |
Time Owned: more than 12 months. |
Okay, about The MFJ 998 “IntelliTuner”. I've had mine up and running for about a year and a half now and my evaluation of it, at this point, is that it's “okay”.
As far a tuning an antenna goes, it does exactly what it's supposed to do BUT there are a couple of weird things about it. The first thing you are going to notice is every once in awhile you will get the message “Huh? Increase Power” (or something like that) for some unknown reason. When you get this message you have to turn the rig and tuner off and then back on again, increasing power does nothing. And speaking of turning things off and on, you MUST turn on your tuner first and then your radio (or at least I have to) otherwise the tuner will not find the radio. That might be a problem for a guy using a power strip.
Another thing is the watt meter (I can't believe anyone else around here hasn't mentioned this yet). Why would MFJ not put a “peak and hold” meter on this thing? The meter is so fast (analog and digital both) that it's virtually worthless for SSB operation. In CW mode it seems to be pretty accurate but the digital readout will hold what your output power was at the last instant before you unkeyed (which is always unmodulated BTW). In my case, running an AL-811 at 450 watts on LSB, it usually reads about 15 to 18 watts!
Everything else works good and the amplifier interface is way cool.
Like I said, by and large, The MFJ 998 is a pretty decent tuner but it looks to me like MFJ could have made it a whole lot better without costing them a penny more to manufacture it. Like, for instance, putting a meter on it a person could actually use in SSB mode!
Dub Cross
N5NXX
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| N4KC |
Rating:      |
2008-08-27 | |
| Just lucky, I guess |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Once again, I have purchased an MFJ product and found it well-constructed and that it does exactly what the specs say it will do. I guess I'm just lucky. I replaced the 993B 300-watt auto-tuner with this one. The 993 has worked flawlessly for two years. The 998 has three weeks on it so far, and so far my luck holds. Just as it has with all the other MFJ gear I have in my shack...amp, wattmeter, roller inductor tuner, antenna analyzer, etc.
I'm not sure what a previous reviewer means when he says it needs to "remember" all antennas in the farm. It's a smart box but all it sees is a complex impedance that it knows it has to match. Once it "sees" and matches an impedance, it "remembers" that approximate value and, with one click, it is ready to go.
And yes, this tuner does take more current than the 993 to step its relays...more than any of the radios I know of provide in their AT interface...but it says that in the ads and in the manual. MFJ does sell a wall wart that handles 2.5 amps. Or you can do as I did. For about the same money, you can get a 3A 12V supply. Like all wall warts, theirs is "on" all the time and doesn't require switching, but it also stays warm and uses electricity. The cheap supply has to be turned on when you get ready to use the tuner. Man, that's a lot of work throwing that little toggle switch on the supply, but I need the exercise.
The 998 so far: tunes my antennas to the target 1.5-to-1 SWR, interfaces to the TS-2000 with no snags for one-button tuning, and puts the amp (old Ameritron 811) on standby as it tunes...all as promised. I only run 400 to 500 watts, but it handles it fine.
That's what I paid for.
This tuner does offer features not found in any other auto-tuner of which I am aware. And it costs about half what the Palstar does (also a fine tuner, I understand). It does not have an internal balun to match balanced feedlines, but I prefer supplying my own external one since I can go for something sturdier and 1:1 instead of the standard 4:1 normally included in tuners.
I'd like to have a built-in peak-reading wattmeter, too, but that would add to the cost, and the LCD display offers a peak-reading display that is not bad once you get used to it.
So, even though it is not the fashionable thing to do, I once again have to give a "5" to an MFJ product. They just keep disappointing me, giving me products that do what they are supposed to do at a reasonable price.
Don N4KC
www.n4kc.com
www.n4kc.blogspot.com
www.donkeith.com
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| FORMER_WM5Z_SF |
Rating:    |
2008-06-18 | |
| Only game in this price range |
Time Owned: 0 to 3 months. |
Does most of what is claimed by MFJ. Does it match my antenna farm? Yes. It is very noisy when the relays are switching, and if you wanted to use it without disturbing your mate at night, you might need to move this out doors.
My antennas are Dipoles for 160, 75, 60, 40 and 30. I use an AV620 vertical on 20 meters and above. It does match the antennas as selected. To bad I can't have it memorize which antenna to use on which frequency rather than having to manually select which one manually.
Another fault I find is that you have to supply power from your power supply. My rig, an FT-1000 MK v Field only has a power output for accessories of less than 200 MA. This rig has a built in AC power supply to run the radio. I had to go find a power supply to run this, and wound up buying a 5 amp supply to operate the unit. Why doesn't MFJ offer a wall wart to power up this thing at least as an option? |
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