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Reviews For: MFJ-1979 16.5 foot stainless telescoping antenna

Category: Antennas: HF Portable (not mobile)

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Review Summary For : MFJ-1979 16.5 foot stainless telescoping antenna
Reviews: 25MSRP: 59.95
Description:
A telescoping antenna made of stainless steel that extends
to 16.5 feet and collapses to 2 feet. Has standard 3/8 X 24
threads on a solid brass base that is 1 inch diameter by 3
inches long.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-1979
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
15253.9
K5ACL Rating: 2018-08-13
Great, until it breaks Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I put my gear through some rigorous use, and while this little whip help me put out an enormous signal (when elevated), after about 25 uses in a year, the whip broke at one of the section meeting points.

There aren't a lot of options for commercial whips like this that are adjustable in this range for this price. So for the value it's great! I just wished the whip would have lasted a bit longer than a year. Near the end of its life, I would have to tape certain sections together to keep the antenna from collapsing.



KB2NAT Rating: 2018-01-10
Very Useful And Handy Tool Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I will provide another review after I've had a chance to use this antenna more often in the field, but I have had a chance to fool around with it both inside and outside to get an idea of what it can do. I will be experimenting with several types of mounts, but the first thing I did was to simply mount it on a 5" wide magnetic mobile mount and extend the antenna to do an initial eval. No problems there; the unit was solid, nothing slipped or fell off and I wondered if this really came from MFJ. Then I took it outside on the same mount on a metal table, added a couple of radials and made contact with a ham in Minnesota in the afternoon with 5 watts. I had some fun and added two 14" extensions as well to see how that worked. It did! Although it's easy to say that it's no better than a 17' wire (true), I've been in places where only levitation would have worked for a wire (no trees) and it is easier to throw wires on the ground as radials then to levitate them.
So far, so good. I was lazy; I added those two extensions and just tuned it to bands on 40 meters and up. It's a fun and workable toy.
KJ4FGI Rating: 2017-03-02
Solid not junk Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
17' telescopic antenna, well built, I was

surprised that an antenna this long is this solid.

I'm using 2 of them for a portable dipole

Eddie kj4fgi
JR0HYT Rating: 2016-12-04
Good antenna for portable Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I use this whip for portable activity.
Usually set up this whip by 5m telescopic pole with 4 x counter poise (about 5.1m each, for 20m operation).
My component can set up with in 30 min and very suitable for the operation in camping field because of very small foot print.
Of course, performance on 20m band is very good with conventional CW/phone, and JT mode.
N4UM Rating: 2015-12-20
Great for DXpeditions Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
We took 3 of these to the Bahamas for 2 weeks of operation including the 2015 CQWWDXCW contest. They worked very well with two radials each placed about 8 feet over the edge of the salt water on a wooden deck. We ran 3 single band stations simultaneously on 10, 15 and 20M. The 10 meter station made over 900 QSOs. The 15 meter station had over 2000 QSOs and the 20 meter station almost 1500. We also used them on 30 and 40 meters with optional base-loading coils. The weather was quite windy - blowing at 20-25 MPH for days at a time. They bent quite a bit but held up well. We had to rinse the salt spray from them quite often and used a kitchen cleanser to remove the rust build-up. I cleaned them thoroughly with fresh water, dried them and sprayed them with WF-40 before collapsing them and putting them away after the trip.

They are an ideal portable antenna and can readily be packed in a conventional sized suitcase.
WB4M Rating: 2015-10-12
Low cost alternative Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I had been looking for an easy to setup antenna for portable use at the beach when I discovered this vertical whip. I ordered it from DXEngineering with some other items. MFJ says it is a 16.7 ft. stainless steel telescoping whip, but I measured mine and it is 17'4".
The antenna can be telescoped in or out to make a 1/4 wave length antenna for 6-20 meters with low SWR. I was able to get low SWR on 6-17 meters, but no matter what I tried would get good SWR on 20 meters. I tried with/without radials, ground mounted, tripod mounted, but closest resonance to 20 was around 15.100 MHZ according to my MFJ analyzer. One thing I did notice was the thinner sections need to be fully pulled out or they will tend to slide back down into the next section. At first I thought that was my problem but it wasn't. I have the LDG817 tuner for my FT-817 so I will just use it with the antenna fully extended for all bands and not worry about adjusting it for band changes.. easier to do that anyway. I had looked at a few magnetic loops and other portable vertical systems, but you're looking a $250-350 dollars vs. $40-50 for this whip. Lot of hams are mounting it via a truck mirror mount for CB antennas, about $10.00 or less. One mount is available that uses 2 of these whips in a "V" configuration. There are a few videos on YouTube showing how some are using this antenna in the field. It is very lightweight, collapses to about 27 inches, easy to backpack, no problems with stringing up wires, etc.
NS5U Rating: 2015-08-05
Beats the others Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Robust and stainless steel. I am selling the Buddipole and the army fishing pole verticals. When able I set up a 32ft fiberglass vertical but I can always deploy the nearly 17ft MFJ-1979.

No tuner needed from 14mhz to 54mhz. a couple of 16ft counterpoise on the ground and I am good to go. This is rugged built. Wish I had discovered it sooner.
EI2HPB Rating: 2015-02-05
Best money spent on ham radio gear! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Been meaning to review this great product for some time... Simple design, telescopic stainless steel whip less than 2ft long that telescopes out to 16.5ft so usable as a 1/4 wave vertical from 6-20m. I've used it mobile, portable and home base, on various different mounts, with and without radials and/or a loading coil to work all of the above mentioned bands plus 40m. I live on the north west coast of Ireland very near the north atlantic ocean and so far the antenna has stood up to our hard weather pretty well. As the previous reviewer mentioned the top (thinnest) section is quite fragile and prone to a bit of discolouration... that said it does not affect the performance which in my case has been excellent. I regularly go mobile or portable with this antenna in close proximity to salt water and it is the quickest easiest way I know to get a 1/4 wave vertical antenna up and on the air working exotic DX around the globe. Absolutely the best 50 bucks spent on the hobby since I got my ticket!
2E1RDX Rating: 2013-11-22
Fantastic from Static Mobile Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have the MFJ-1979 Whip for static mobile operations I have a stud mount in the middle of the car roof with a quick release and just take the antenna off adjust the length to give me a full 1/4 wave antenna any band between 6m and 20m This thing rocks, very well made and puts out a fantastic signal
This would be great for Hams who can't put anything big or permenant up easy to mount easy to adjust great value I am over the moon with it
I am awaiting delivery of a Wolf River LLC 40-10 Stainless steel coil which with this whip will then give me 40/80m as well happy days
Ian
N4RSS Rating: 2013-07-26
Good Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Sturdy 16.5 ft telescoping whip, that about sums it up, in a convenient form.

Worked well as 1/4 wave on 20m on a tripod with a tape measure extended to 17 ft as a single radial. Worked Bulgaria and others from the patio.

On the other hand, so would have any other 16.5 ft piece of metal. But handy