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Reviews For: MFJ-266

Category: Antenna Analyzers

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Review Summary For : MFJ-266
Reviews: 13MSRP: 349.95
Description:
MFJ HF/VHF/UHF Antenna Analyzer 1.5-185* MHz plus 300-490MHz

Product is in production
More Info: http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-266
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
00131.9
K9ZIB Rating: 2017-11-22
DOA Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I realize they are trying to meet a lower price point with this product, but WOW is analyzer junk. Would not power up with either battery AA/Lithium. Frequency pot was loose and sloppy. Sent back for return.

Spend the extra money and buy a quality analyzer!
OA4DKI Rating: 2016-06-29
bad analyser Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bougth in Dayton 2014, it never read a UHF antenna, the meseure is very diferent from a usually meter swr with needlde.

it is very bad.
2M0LDT Rating: 2016-05-07
Fantastic Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
WOW, what an EXCELLENT Analyzer !
Super stable, but i had bought the Feature Tech AW07A as i was "TOLD" it was the same .. it is NOT!
the cheaper Feature Tech LOOKS the same but man O man its not.. ive ready many spurious stories of MFJ re badging etc etc.. it contacted MFJ direct, and its all nonsense !, however they are aware of Feature Tech and are also aware of the tales that they are the same..

I have both and have examined them in detail.. they are Totally different internally. the MFJ is far superior in every way, components, soldering etc etc..
you get what you pay for !
KD7ZYZ Rating: 2015-08-12
total junk Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have owned my MFJ-266c for less then two months. The power button will only work if you hold it down all the time. Even then it will not stay on all the time. What a piece of total junk.
VK3LZ Rating: 2014-10-13
DOA Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My unit arrived and I put the batteries inside. I pushed the power button and it didn't switch on. Then I smelt something burning and noticed smoke coming from the battery holder. I quickly removed the batteries but the unit has a dead short and was DOA.
W0FZY Rating: 2013-01-09
Waste of money Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I purchased the MFJ-266 in hopes that it would prove a worthy companion to my geeky electronic arsenal of tools. The quality and design of the unit, to me, appears as if someone said "Well we have all these project boxes, let's see what we can build with them!" The power button is touchy. I accidentally graced over it with my finger while reaching for the frequency band buttons and the unit reset itself. In some cases this will actually power the unit off until you depress the power button and power it back up. Obviously there is a problem in the switch contacts, they almost seem dirty! The frequency band Up/Down buttons are not much better. Pressing them lightly will often not register and pressing them hard enough to activate sometimes causes a jump multiple bands up when you only wanted to go up one band. The "Instrument quality" dial was far from anything I would use on a diagnostic tool. For whatever reason the dial has a secondary rotary indicator that I suppose is to show how high or low you have tuned the dial at quick glance. This however poses a problem. The dial on my unit would not let me tune to the higher edge of each frequency band. It stopped about 200khz short. The "lock" on the dial is a joke. It is simply a piece of plastic that acts as a friction brake to help keep the dial from moving. The lock lever feels cheap enough that I'm afraid to apply any pressure on it out of fear that it will just snap off. I will say the SWR reading appears to be accurate for 50 Ohms, however don't expect any decent results for higher resistance antennas or feed lines.

One thing that seems to vary in documentation is the number of batteries required and if they can be recharged. The unit I received had a battery pack that accepted 4 AA cells along with a pack for a single cell rechargeable Panasonic battery. You had to choose between the two. You also have to choose between external power or battery power by changing a selector jumper inside the unit. That seemed very annoying. If I was on battery and they suddenly died I would have to open up the unit to switch to external power. It is also very annoying to remove four screws any time the batteries need changed. The Panasonic battery would prevent all this since it's rechargeable, however the battery will only recharge if the unit is powered off and plugged in. Additionally, the unit will NOT recharge any AA batteries, only the Panasonic.

I will say the chassis of the unit appears sturdy, the LCD is easy to read even with the backlight on and the N-connector is greatly appreciated with the use of UHF frequencies. I'm not sure why you have to set buttons at the top of the unit depending if you want HF, VHF or UHF frequency bands in addition to using the frequency band Up/Down buttons. That seems entirely redundant to me. Having one set of buttons that would adjust the HF/VHF/UHF selector electronically seems like a better solution but I'm not the engineer/designer.

This unit can read cable reactance, capacitance and resistance as well as velocity factors but cannot show you cable length or distance to fault. Why that was left out is beyond me, it seems like a natural thing to include if you're measuring all these things.

For an analyzer that costs as much as the MFJ-266, I would expect better quality. At the very least I would expect a quality control department that could test the buttons to make sure they function properly and every time before a mass of units leaves the factory. I will not be keeping this MFJ-266 analyzer and I will definitely be buying a different brand product in the near future.
NS1Z Rating: 2012-02-18
QC still an issue for MFJ Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Got mine from GigaParts and was excited to use it. Installed 8 alkalines and pushed the switch. Nothing!! I have some time in the hobby so I knew it had to be a quaility issue. Traced the voltages from the batteries and found one of the battery packs was not supplying anything. Peeled it off the double sided tape and found the "On-Off" switch was, you guessed it, off. Pushed the switch to on after installing the batteries again and Voila! It powers up. Tape the case back in and close it up. I suppose you could say this was a benefit since it required some trouble shooting skills which had been little used when buying other equipment...
KD2AXZ Rating: 2012-01-28
Seems junky Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
First unit I received has a sloppily installed pot, so when you turn it for tuning the thing shifts back/forth. Tuning rolls all over the place by itself, too. Waiting for a new replacement unit from MFJ ...

based on the other info here that says this is a relabeled unit from another manufacturer, I'd say avoid.
M3IUC Rating: 2011-08-11
does what it says on the tin Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I bought mine for £160 new when it was named FEATURE TECH. i bought it on the internet from china.It is very usefull as i like building antennas and this saves a lot of time. i have had no problems with mine and i have not changed the batterys yet and its still working. i wouldn't pay what mfj want for it that is OTT.
and i bet it isn't as well made now that it is mass produced. dont exspect it to do any more than check swr on uhf as that is all it will do as stated in the manual.
AG4CX Rating: 2011-07-25
OK after Rework Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This product appears to be keeping in the recent tradition of Mighty Fine Junk/Ameri-Trash. The unit is built in China and obviously MFJ has zero incoming QA. Bought this as an upgrade to my trusty 259B. The 266 was received with the tune pot wired backwards. That was easy to fix. The power supply is brain dead. Can't recharge or even use rechargable batteries like the older 259B. The plastic battery pack was loose. They used some real cheap chinese self stick tape to hold it.
Replaced the battery pack with a 14.8V 1.8AH lithium battery pack and matching wall wart charger from BatterySpace.Com. Rewired the unit so that the DC power plug connects directly to the battery and the battery connects to the 266 via an Micrel MIC29150-12 12V voltage regulator (always on, but the quiescent current draw is so low it doesn't matter). Now it has a useable battery system.
Accuracy with some test loads and compared to the 259B is good, but not any better.
Would not have purchased this product if I had known then what I know now!