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Reviews For: MFJ 870 1.6-60.0 Mhz Grandmaster Meter

Category: SWR & Wattmeters & Dummy Loads

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Review Summary For : MFJ 870 1.6-60.0 Mhz Grandmaster Meter
Reviews: 4MSRP: 99.99
Description:
Very affordable, attractive and functioning peak reading wattmeter
Product is not in production
More Info: http://
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0043.8
KM0K Rating: 2017-06-14
No good on 50Mhz Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I made a aluminum dipole for 50Mhz for the recent 6 meter band openings and started to tune it with the MFJ-870 meter. I got all kinds of wild readings. I extended the tubing and the readings did not change, same with shortening the tubing. So to test the meter I connected 2 - 50 ohm dummy loads in parallel which would give me a load of 25 ohms and a theoretical SWR of 2:1. I keyed the TX and found the meter to read 1.1:1 Not good at 25 ohms. Now I’m wondering if my Hustler 4BTV was tuned correctly with this meter. So then I started down at 160 meters at 25 ohms and found it to be close on (160, 80, & 40 meters 1.8:1) On (14 Mhz 1.7:1) (21Mhz 1.6:1) (28Mhz 1.5:1) (50Mhz 1.1:1) If you have a MFJ-870 meter you might try this to see if it is just my meter or a common problem with this design. I have a e-mail sent to MFJ to find out what they have to say about it.
KF7VXA Rating: 2014-05-05
Good Value for the Money Time Owned: more than 12 months.
For the price, this seems to be one of the more accurate meters. It's not going to be spot on the entire scale by any means, but as the one review said, it's close enough.
It is a pain to always have to re adjust the SWR calibration when changing power levels etc.
If you want your SWR to be as accurate as this meter will give you, the SWR has to be calibrated with every change. For that reason, my next meter will be an Ameritron, half again as much money, but also more accuracy and no calibrations every time something is changed.
If the calibration does not bother you, it's worth the money.
W8STU Rating: 2011-03-29
WORKS GREAT FOR THE MONEY Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Greetings,

If you are on a budget and can not afford a Bird or any other one of those very pricey SWR/Power meters, the MFJ-870 Grand Master is for you. It appears to be accurate enough for my testing. Granted I am not an electrical engineer or anything, but for the simple testing that I do, this meter works just fine. It is well constructed. I would highly recommend this meter to new Hams and Elmer's too. Thanks for taking the time to read my review. 73, Stu de W8STU

P.S. I only spent $79.00 for one new on Ebay.
KI6OSH Rating: 2010-03-29
Works great so far.. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Having only owned this meter for 3 months, I can only say that so far I'm very impressed with it. Seems to be a very well manufactured meter and very attractive too. Costing only 100 dollars, a great value for the money. We'll see how it holds up....so far, so good.