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Reviews For: MFJ-432

Category: Voice Keyers

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Review Summary For : MFJ-432
Reviews: 16MSRP:
Description:
Voice Keyer
Product is in production
More Info: http:// http://www.mfjenterprises.com/products.php?prodid=MFJ-432
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00163.1
KG9H Rating: 2012-07-03
Great little voice keyed Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have used this keyer with many many different kinds of radios, very easy to wire up. I even have two output cords one for 8-pin round and modular for Icom.
WU0R Rating: 2011-01-24
Good Addition Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Bought one of these used and it is a revision 2 on the circuit board. No idea what the differences might be in configuration.

Works fine, seems to have clear audio to the radio. Can't complain.
KI9A Rating: 2005-09-24
no problems here! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Have had the 432 since it came out, about 90,000 contest QSO's ago, & have only had to replace one of the buttons. The speaker has also failed, but, you should not be using that thing to monitor your audio--use the monitor on your rig for that!
All in all, for just over a hundred bucks, not bad!

73-Chuck KI9A
K4JRB Rating: 2002-07-08
Get one with the revision Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought a 432 from HRO several years ago. It worked great on transmit using one of the memories
but did not work straight through. I happened upon Tom W8JI who told me that he worked on a revision (1 or greater) that fixed the problem with not being able to work straight through.

I sent the 432 back to MFJ and one month later got a new 432 back. I know its been replaced by an improved model but if you find a used one ask the owner if its revision 1 or greater.

Mine has worked fine since (sure saves the voice calling VP6DI or YA5T) as well in contests. I ran over 100 qsos on 40 in a recent CQ WW SSB without once having to speak myself! I just pushed the buttons and logged the QSOs.

73 Dave K4JRB
N7DC Rating: 2002-02-04
better operations after grounding Time Owned: more than 12 months.
After my original review, I continued to study the problem with the keyer and, like others, wound up putting it on its on wall supply. Still continued to get reports of horrible sounding voice with it. Played around with input to rig, same thing. Finally drilled a separate hole in the case, and ground it directly to station ground that way, versus just thru the mike cable/rig, and lo and behold- no more problems. Been using it a year or so now and get good signal reports out of it. Still havent heard a word from MFJ about my original (or follow up) emails concerning the unit.

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Earlier 3-star review posted by N7DC on 1999-11-04

One more piece of ham gear, several more problems. It worked out of the box, but noted that the channel 3 audio output to the speaker was weaker than the other 3 channels. Also appears to be some feedback when using earphones.
Put it away for a time and when unpacked it again- there is NO AUDIO on any channel, to the speaker. Did some on-air tests and other ops advise that all channels seem to work ok, with a slight hum heard by only a couple of ops. Put in a 9 v battery -in place of shack power supply- and used it a couple of hours, but left the darn thing on and when got back several hours later, the green light was still lit (indicating good battery??) but no relay/output. Another battery, and back operational (still no speaker). Its now been one month since sent MFJ an email requesting their advice. STILL NO RESPONSE. Why do they have a web page, with email address , if they are not going to reply?
N0AH Rating: 2000-03-14
They still suck! Time Owned: unknown months.
Where is my new keyer??? that last 432 I had ended up in the junk pile next to the MFJ software and 249 Analyzer that worked about 12 hours- I was a week out of the warranty period and got a $114 bill- please- Not to mention the laughable MFJ-493's I got screwed on- ...this company will always screw you anyway they can- they make crap- period- and anyone who falls for their loaded advertising is a bigger fool then they are-

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Earlier 0-star review posted by N0AH on 1999-09-28

Every keyer I have ever got from MFJ works about 5-10 minutes then fails- This is another case of "If You Advertise It, They Will Buy It-" that doesn't mean they build anything that works-

After trying out three of these things, the last one is in the garbage heap-

Memories that seldom retain anything-, amazing cases of RF feedback- varying output levels contengent upon bands used- I mean the list is never ending- I keep trying, beliving, that MFJ can make a keyer, any memory keyer, that will work as advertised-- but after 4 years of trying out their equipment- it sucks- and I am the bigger fool to keep trying it-

Sincerely,

Paul Veal N0AH
Carpenter, WY
K2UOP Rating: 2000-02-28
The 432 never worked, but MFJ made it up to me!! Time Owned: unknown months.
I've had two previous reports of woe with the MFJ 432, but I'm now a happy camper, because they ended up by doing right by me. I had sent the keyer back for the second time and waited three months to inquire about it's status. I was told by Richard (customer relations) that it wasn't fixed yet and because they had the unit for so long he would see about sending me a "new" one. Sounded great to me, but I had been told they didn't make the 432 model anymore. Well three days later I received a package in the mail and to my suprise I received (at no extra cost to me) a new model 434 voice keyer. So I must say that MFJ did treat me right in the end, and I appreciated Richards' assistance in the matter. See my report on the model 434. It's a keeper!!!

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Earlier 0-star review posted by K2UOP on 1999-10-22

I was the first one to list a review of the 432
back in Sept. Well I finally received it back from
MFJ today (22Oct). They had it since 28 July.
Guess what? It still isn't working!!!What makes it
worse is it looks like they looked for the problem
in the cable and took the cover off the plug. Well they never put the plug back together and the
parts were inside the unit rattling around. Also
some nuts that hold down the PC board were never
replaced. To say the least, I am not a happy
camper with this keyer or with MFJ. I have to wait
until next week to see what they intend to do.
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Earlier 0-star review posted by K2UOP on 1999-09-14

Purchased the unit brand new at Dayton, brought it
home, made the proper jumpers for Yaesu. Plugged
it into my new FT-1000MP and nothing. When it is
unplugged it works okey, but when I plug it in,
the voltage is drawn down, so it doesn't work.
Per MFJ instructions I sent it back for repair and
they received it on 28 July. As of 10 Sept, they
haven't even gotten around to looking at it yet.
Now that is not good service. So I give MFJ
quality control and service a goose egg.
W1JIM Rating: 1999-12-25
Mighty Fine for the bucks, yes I'd do it again! Time Owned: unknown months.
Bought the MFJ-432 to use with my FT-990 and have been quite happy. I have heard of problems with the Yaesu DVS and besides it is serous money. I had the same problems as everyone else when I hooked it up to my main 12 volt source - nasty hum. Once I gave it its own wall wart power source it works great! I don't do much contesting, I use it primarily for breaking pileups - the family isn't too enthused with hearing me call over and over to get my contact. I just punch the button until it's my turn! Works fine, audio is just like recorded and doesn't sound nasty like I thought it might.
KB8UUZ Rating: 1999-11-04
No Problems Here! Time Owned: unknown months.
Got my 432 a year and a half ago. At first it would not record, then I realized the internal jumpers were set wrong from the factory, but a quick check using the manual, and since then no problems. Never thought of using a battery since I knew they would not last, went straight for a 'wall wart' plug in power cube. Hooked the rig up to a Kenwood TS-690 and Heil Microphone. Works like a champ! No extra noise or clicks or nothing to complain about. Have used it heavily for more than a dozen contests. No complaints here.
OE5OHO Rating: 1999-11-04
...after CQWW 1999 Time Owned: unknown months.
I promised to tell you if the MFJ-432 worked in the contest with the external 12V 16Ah akku... Thanks god that was the solution to the problem - but(!) I rate this MFJ-product as only 2 stars! 1) the original tasters are a waste of money - they NEVER will survive a 48h contest like last weekend!!! solder them out and throw them away!
2) with my 432 it`s not clever to buy a 9V-blockbattery - it NEVER will run for 48 h (see my reviews before). just to mention it, a friends 432 does the same!
3) massive groundloop troubles occure when you try to run the 432 from the same powersupply as your transceiver!! seems like MANY PEOPLE have troubles that way...
In my humble opinion the MFJ-company saves money the wrong way!! A voicekeyer SHOULD (MFJ doesn`t built it that way!) have tasters that actually will survive the liftetime of the alu-housing. I don´t know HOW often I hit my built in tasters last weekend in the 48 contest, but they are like I just installed them: working fine, smooth and nothing to do about it. If I would have used the MFJ-tasters the contest would have been a disaster!!! MFJ perhaps should rethink their design and DO SOMETHING about groundloop-problems most owners have! AT LEAST they should take notice and include a help-file on their webpage to cure the problem!!
It´s fine working if you modify it yourself - and it WILL only(!) WORK properly IF YOU WORK IT OVER before you use it while passionately contesting... vy 73 de Oliver...

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Earlier 1-star review posted by OE5OHO on 1999-10-28

Well, after using the MFJ 432 with the big station some bad things happen. 1) using the same(!) powersupply as the FT-1000MP (yes, an external one) was _NOT_ good, experienced groundloop!!! TXsignals -playing back stored messages- are disturbed massively!! not good. Did not test recording but I promise, it would be with a hum (see my last review for solution).
2) Bought a new(!!) 9V-batterie, installed it: works fine - for a not even one hour!!!!!! then the internal relay stopped switching the PTT to TRX. Still - you can hear your stored messages on the built-in-speaker! It really seems to me that running this keyer with the internal 9V-supply
_IS NOT_ the solution!!! A single 9V-batterie does NOT allow a 48h contestoperation! Low voltage might be the trouble with some other reviews - check this!
3) I will bring a 12V-16Ah akku with me for the contest and _HOPE_ that this will make the
keyer work as it should! I will report if it worked in the contest and what other bad things happend... 73 de OE5OHO
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Earlier 3-star review posted by OE5OHO on 1999-10-22

... for the upcoming CQWW. Also manual said "keyer set up for Kenwood" it was set for Yaesu, but that is fine with me. First tests with low-power worked so far. I noticed also that when you are recording a message and you got the MFJ 432 connected to an external powersupply you have some hum on the stored messages!! I simply installed an already used 9V-battery and from now on will record messages with the external supply NOT connected. Seems like a groundloop-problem - when I removed the mic-cable from the TRX - that means I broke that loop - things were fine again. So either disconnect the mic-cable _OR_ use the internal battery-
option when recording messages! (For playback during contest the external supply works fine!)
Well, the quality overall looks poor but should work - MFJ would be recommended to use MUCH
BETTER TASTERS on their product!! These will be the first things changed here.
If something bad happens, I´ll report it to you after the contest...