MFJ in partnership with InnovAntennas and G0KSC

MFJ is a unique American success story and has proven that we can effortlessly compete with and beat China on the lowest end of the quality scale. They have a fine reputation for providing challenging products that offer endless hours of troubleshooting as we attempt to figure out how they were supposed to work. MFJ's strong efforts to rescue many reputable companies from oblivion by purchasing their name and producing look-alike products of dubious reliability has counterfeit Rolex producers everywhere stunned by their boldness and success. A particular masterpiece is the "Cushcraft" A3S and A4S antennas and their brethren, whose taffy-like unreinforced plastic trap centers cause endless hours of amusement for operators as the SWR jumps up and down with every gust of wind, ray of sunshine and turn of the rotor. And let's not forget the power supplies whose parts are only partially soldered in - a tribute to Heathkit! (sans assembly manual). Or the antenna analyzers whose battery chargers are theoretical - not to worry - the rechargeable batteries don't work either, and the wattmeters calibrated by Santa Claus (they always throw in a lot more watts, free). No other company has come closer to the coveted "Zero Sigma" quality control metric than MFJ, in design, redesign and production, with the possible exception of Ford and GM, during the exploding Pinto/Vega era. Sometimes, the results are equally explosive.

I'm very concerned that MFJ may someday go "upscale", by putting a few more pennies into their products, concentrating on the one or two they can build well and actually producing something that works as advertised, on delivery and beyond. Gosh! What will QST do for advertising? Imagine, going from 25 catalog pages of theoretical MFJ products to one: "Hi. We're MFJ and we have a very nice HF antenna, HF amplifier and HF wattmeter. They actually work, are really calibrated and are likely to continue working for more than a week. Plus, they're FIREPROOF!" BRRRRR! It would be like that scene with Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol", where the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come scares him so badly he buys a Goose for the Cratchit family and decides to adopt Tiny Tim. Kind of like a zombie working in a nursery.

 

MFJ is going to screw something up again. Here goes another good product down the sewer,

 

Hams once home-brewed what is now made by MFJ. I wish them wealth and prosperity. Jobs for Americans and products for Hams.

73, Larry WB8LBZ
El Paso

 

I have NO problem with buying and using MFJ products, outstanding service if any is ever needed.
I use MFJ-873 , MFJ-1412, MFJ-1728, MFJ-1702, MFJ-1717, MFJ-335, MFJ-333, MFJ-269, MFJ-464, MFJ-418, MFJ-1275, Hy-Gain VB214FM, Mirage B-2530-G, Two CushCraft A148-20T, Two Cushcraft ARX-2B, Cushcraft AR6, Two Cushcraft AR450.

Only once did I have a problem with the MFJ-1412, which I bought from another vendor at a hamfest, I took it to MFJ, a tech put it on a analyzer and confirmed something was wrong with it, got a brand new one out of the warehouse, installed it on my truck, checked it with the analyzer again and confirmed it to be working and it's been a great antenna.

It kills me all the people that write bad things about MFJ. I understand there have been faulty products, what company has NEVER had a faulty product? With MFJ's "no matter what" guarantee and their service to fix or replace a product.... it's just a no brainer that your safe putting money on their products if it fits your needs and price. You want Cadillac products and prices, go to the Cadillac stores and spend it.

 

Yes, indeed.

 

If MFJ was what the detractors claim, it would have gone out of business long ago. Instead, it's been very successful and has greatly expanded over decades, while manufacturing much of its product in the US.

 

Some people insist on bitching just to be bitching. Most of these people never experienced bad or poor products from MFJ. Its high time these individuals put up or shut up. Put your money where your mouth is. If you think you can do a better job at manufacturing the products in the MFJ catalog then DO IT! So sick and tired of all the criticism people have.

 

My Mirage B5016G, Ameritron ALS-500M, MFJ-4275MV, Ameriton AL-80B and Hustler 6-BTV have all been working fine for years.

 

There are quite a few instances of poor assembly line workmanship.
The manuals and schematics are not being updated for many products.
I recently tried 3 different items and sent them back for refunds.
I just purchased a 2m/70cm dual band Yagi. An analyzer test on the 70cm band showed the resonant match point to be down out of band at 380 mhz. The diplexer board is an open design mounted on the boom with no cover. What was to be done about this? I decided to try shorting the driven elements rather that ruin the diplexer board not knowing if it was the issue. There are feed throughs on the board that were questionable and fixed. I was lucky to get the 70cm match within acceptable limits on the band. The match came in very good at the low end and rises to 1.6 on the high end so stopped at that point and called it good. I just lucked out, but why was this design that far off? The elements even measured the correct lengths. I suspect the diplexer board added excess element electrical lengths.
The other gear is a 25 year old pre owned AL80B I did minor repairs on several times and an ATR 20 Tuner that works very nice. I like both these pieces.
Overall the designs are good but quality control seems not a high priority for this company.
Today most Hams are plug and play so have no clue how the help themselves and that leads to frustration when their equipment does not perform, have to do returns, and is a source of poor PR.
I don't make it a habit of public bashing but it is a consideration when I purchase equipment.
Good luck.

 

Its very interesting to see how (some) hams exploit this dissing posture. We saw it last week on Ham Radio Deluxe, and now MFJ. Its as if the empowerment to destroy gives pleasure beyond the alleged transgression--if indeed said transgression even exists. Indeed, we have ALLOWED this entire scenario to be ingrained within ham radio--profoundly to our detriment.

To wit, let's air out an example:

In 2011, KB6NU decided he was going to exploit me and my business to further his own. He wrote a piece in his blog on fractal antennas that apparently was designed to discredit myself and my work, and he also infringed on copyright (knowingly posting my photo without permission, for commercial purposes) in doing so.

Here's how he did it:

1) wrote a blog piece (you can still easily find it, 6 years later);

2) took the blog piece and provided it as FILLER ARTICLE FOR HAM RADIO NEWS LETTERS to , presumably, hundreds of ham clubs with their on-line newsletters;

3) traded (I presume) the USE of this piece in those newsletters for ADVERTISING OF HIS PRODUCTS in those newsletters.

So KB6NU exploited dissing of me and my inventions to further his own business.

IOW, what you some of guys do for free--dissing business-- he managed to do for money, by furthering his own products. He took the next step.

Hey, why diss for free when you can make money off it! Just ask KB6NU.

The outcome of that was that queries came into me asking about the technology outside of ham use, which were furthered to meet customer needs. But the ham hassle was vicious and targeted, with little or no factual basis. You haven't lived until you wake up in the morning, take a cup of Joe, turn on the computer, and read hate mail. Thanks KB6NU!

I was being projected as some bad person and a bad ham, at least that how it was manifested in the feedback I received.

So before you go excoriating Martin--and others-- just keep in mind that there are those who will call you on it. Its improper to abuse fellow hams in this way.

It is time to purge this dissing culture from ham radio.

Or, you can keep it up and watch ham radio die along with its ageing demographic.

73
Chip W1YW

 

It is *really* easy to sit behind a keyboard and diss people all day and night. It makes certain people feel "good" inside for some reason. Sadly, it is those people who have the power to ruin things for the rest of us. I have a feeling, and here, I could be wrong, but I think that the majority of people in the large-scale dissing, haven't felt the other side of that.

It's a sad world out there - but there is still DX to be worked, and QSOs to be made. Lets all have some fun on the air. Chip is spot-on here, 100% right. Lets just have some ham radio fun.

 

I agree; it is disgusting.

There are a few cases these days of QC problems for MFJ, but it is certainly not the norm.

In case some of you didn't notice, the MFJ booth at Dayton is almost always the most visited, and people , including me, spend money there. The MFJ booth ALSO has dozens and dozens of replacement parts you can buy, rather than buying NEW MFJ products to replace the worn ones (such as antennas).

We should be learning from Martin, not dissing him.

73
Chip W1YW

 

I have eight of Justin's LFAs, and I visited his production facility in the early Days of Innovantennas. I stood along side him while he cut the elements for my four 70cm LFAs using a vernier gauge for measuring the element lengths. I also helped to assemble the antennas, so I know how much effort he puts in to manufacture, and I also know the quality of the fittings he uses. If someone is making his antennas under licence then you can be sure he'll insist on the very best materials and construction or he won't allow his name to be associated with them.
Whenever I'm looking to buy an antenna the first question I ask myself is does Justin make it?

 

I have owned numerous pieces of MFJ equipment over the years, including several antenna tuners and a couple of antenna tuners. My company has used a 259B in avionics antenna work for years and it has held up very well under commercial usage. While the quality control of the products can be spotty at times, the overall support has been phenomenal and I have found the gear I've owned or utilized to be reliable and useful. Parts are easy to obtain and reasonably priced. It's fair to say that they have spread themselves a little thin with the extreme diversification of their product line, which has led to some inconsistency in terms of manual accuracy and updates. Overall however, MFJ has provided a much needed resource of reasonably priced amateur gear that is domestically produced. If you, like me, think that American manufacturing is something that needs to thrive, then MFJ is worthy of consideration and support. I for one don't want my only option to be to purchase equipment with names that nobody can agree upon how to pronounce.

If an offshore manufacturer wants to partner with a domestic manufacturer so that their product can be built and supported in this country, and the work can be done to a satisfactory standard, I think it's a good deal for all concerned. I wish them the best and look forward to seeing what they can do.

73,

Jim K. - KS9Q

 

Huh?

I take it your tuners didnt catch on fire as was common some 20 or so years ago and even happened to the ARRL Product Review Techs. MFJ made incremental improvements, added different letters to the model suffix as it went along.
MFJ also has a habit of overrating the power handling capability of their tuners except in a perfect lab test environment. Overheated coils and burnt switch problems are the result

Quality control problems still exist across the MFJ empire which includes amps and antennas. Cushcraft and Hi Gain were known for decades for quality; what is so hard now to be certain to include all the correct parts or elements of the proper lengths?

Why did it take decades to correct the AC input wiring on the three senior series of Ameritron amps even though told about it for over a decade and when a welded relay contact took out the power transformer? Plus the customer pays to return the transformer and is often told the warranty is expired.

Why doesnt Ameritron have authorized service centers around the country where customers can easily drive to or shipping is much cheaper? It isnt like their amps are complicated with all sorts of digital control.

As an aside Ive been servicing amps since 1963 when starting with the National NCL-2000 and moonlighting for dealers in the Boston area on all brands, building amps for Heathkit stores, and still continue the work on my own.

Engineering and quality problems still plague Ameritron amps and their schematics will drive many crazy. I get many of their amps in for repair since the owners cant follow the circuits.

The AL-811 And 811H are run well beyond safe limits for the tubes when tuned per the manual

The 259B has gone thru over a dozen revisions in hardware and firmware and upgrading isnt possible except within a specific Rev window. When mine crapped out they told me it was too old and to get a new one. I fixed the problem and certainly wont buy another from them. The competition has versions that do so much more, are easier to use up on a tower and dont eat 10 AA batteries regularly.

Besides poor quality control I and my customers have problems with excessively long repair turn around times as well as being told a part is out of stock and the wait time could be a few months. MFJ uses the Just In Time inventory method and orders only when there are sufficient dealer and customer orders on hand plus a small surplus. It is the same for Ameritron and several of their amp products are very low volume but having a fairly large component commonality between models is a good thing.

I hope MFJ survives but it certainly isnt as responsive to customers as many past and present USA companies.