MFJ in partnership with InnovAntennas and G0KSC

I don't understand: did you buy the PS as a utilitarian solution or as a work of art? It was out of warranty, and you found a simple fix. This is a basis for a complaint?

I've had many ham products, not MFJ, that needed re-soldering. Last year, I had a Ten Tec Centurion blow because of a loose solder connection to a filter cap. Bang!!

If you want to buy into Six Sigma practices then go somewhere else, doesn't that sound like good advice?

Again, if you had issues, why did you keep buying their products?

73
Chip W1YW

 

They make absolutely nothing that is considered quality or proud workmanship as far as I'm concerned. Here will be yet another good company, selling out, like Cushcraft and the others who now only produce high priced garbage. Homebrewing is the only way to get it right!

 

Justin,

I'm sure your products will sell well here and be made with the QC you expect for your customers.

73
Chip W1YW

 

I just opened up , carefully, my MFJ-299, which I am selling because its too big for my operating desk.

The soldering is clean and better than acceptable. My only quibble is I would put ferrite inside the housing, but that's up to each owner, IMO.

A quality piece with an excellent price.

73
Chip W1YW

 

Nathan is good at semantics but poor in basic human interaction.

The folded dipole feed, one or more on the same boom, goes back to the late 40's for VHF TV and FM antennas. Various ham antenna software included similar designs back into the 80's. Since yagi gain is a function of boom length I do not see what the Innovative design offers over any other well designed yagi. Some manufacturers obviously settle for what they consider good enough and do not take optimization to the Nth degree. Also not considered by many it seems is that an extremely high F/R is not wanted by most who do not want to miss callers from other directions as has been reported by Innovative users from HF to UHF. Many optimized traditional VHF/UHF designs used for EME appear to equal Innovative for antenna temperature. I used published modifications for my CC 4218XL stack and later the 17B2's.

My own 8 el 6M design models, and shows in use, a -40 dB F/R over 50 to 50.5 mHz ( I lived a quarter mile from a working dairy farm with tractors, irrigation pumps, and a sawmill using no ignition noise suppression and regular arc welding repairs/fabrication) and gain within .2dB of theory; I wanted that bandwidth as I use CW, SSB, and AM. It uses no insulators, a simple T match that is easily adjusted for 50 or 75 Ohm coax and minimum effect from snow and ice. It is also rugged having survived 25 years on top of the highest hill within ~20 miles and open to whatever direction the wind gods want to attack from including salt laden coastal storms along with ferocious hill effect updrafts.
AND it started life as a hamfest used Cushcraft 617-6B Boomer which was designed in 1979, before ham available software; F/R was horrible which was the norm back then as gain and bandwidth were most important. I offered the design to CC for a pittance but got the Not Invented Here reply.

My 5el 10M yagi was designed for 28 to 29.1 mHz with low VSWR and above average F/R of ~ 25-30dB using the same criteria as above.

CC was also sold several times along with high turnover in engineering, sales, and QC before it was heading for dissolving; and MFJ got it for pennies and made it much worse as they did with Ameritron and Hi Gain.

Im sure that MFJ/Innovative will be the choice for those requiring its specific features and willing to pay the premium while in competition with Force 12 and others using a similar design.

Carl

 

Professors come in all "degrees" which includes the visiting type that wont show up as staff or anything else except an accounting entry.

 

Carl WHo ??

So commit to a fact: is the person in question here (as you would put it) now, or previously has been a visiting professor?

Are you stating that as fact?

Or is this more dissing culture:That is, falsehoods made to sound real-- but factually wrong--that are profferred to caste doubt on the individual?

Just like we see here with Martin, and MFJ....

BTW Carl WHo--- You have a clear disdain for those who have sacrificed for an advanced education ("degrees")... (to wit: "piled high and deeper"). Additionally your grammar is so solecistic it is often impossible to derive your meaning ("higher a tutor").

What's driving your hate for those who worked hard to advance ?

A nice piece by W1YRC on the Ph.D. dilemma, and DXing..

http://www.w1ddd.org/pdfs/whistle/cw0509.pdf

 

Carl WHo --

DISSatified, Carl WHo?

Another clear example of dissing culture-- Cushcraft hardly was 'heading for dissolving'; they had been previously bought by a private equity firm who sold it for a profit. The ham antenna part of Cushcraft was a minority of the revenue generation.

HERE'S THE FACT: Cushcraft sold for $90M 10 years ago and was bought by Laird. What we know as CC is now Laird.

http://mwrf.com/components/laird-technologies-acquires-cushcraft

MFJ purchased the 'aluminum tube division' (that is, the Cushcraft ham antenna designs) and rights to the Cushcraft name from Laird. They paid more than pennies for it...

http://www.arrl.org/news/mfj-acquires-cushcraft

Carl WHo wants to re-write history with dissing, apparently.

 

Brian, K6BRN, has publicly stated the MFJ/Cushcraft A3 antenna is a faulty design and describes a 'dogleg drooping' caused by the traps.

It is unfortunate that he had this problem; has anyone ELSE had this particular problem? If so, did you tell MFJ?

73
Chip W1YW

 

Hi Chip:

(Sigh!) I'm not "going to hit you with my best shot", any more than I'd argue with someone about Bigfoot. No point to it. Plenty is already on-line, as you pointed out, way, way above when you complained about some of your dedicated detractors. Which, incidentally, lead me to actually do a brief search. People can make up their own minds, based on their own searches, without my input.

Actually, I'm not buying any more MFJproducts, due to multiple bad experiences. But I have been helping to repair products bought by other members of the various clubs I belong to. So my experiences with MFJ continue. At this point, enough has been said about MFJ - their story is well known, both good and not so good. I do NOT wish them harm, only that they improve their products to the point that we generally get what we pay for, in good working order. 3-Sigma would be a vast improvement and I know 6-Sigma is not a realistic goal with their low volumes. And I think that's fair, don't you?

Best Regards,

Brian - K6BRN

 

Fair enough.

Your A3 experience is unfortunate, but one hopes not common; IMO they should at least do a partial payback on your purchase. Your A3 drooping problem may be caused by the fairly uncommon simultaneous issues of sun, wind, and salt spray exposure (or at least exacerbated by it). Torque is relentless and opportunistic.

Is it possible for you to replace with (good) used traps from the previous design? There's a lot out there: K1BG related to me his story of cleaning out (and up) the traps. Remember the spider scene from Lost In Space? Like that....



73
Chip W1YW

 

.....(Sigh!) I'm not "going to hit you with my best shot", any more than I'd argue with someone about Bigfoot.....


WHAT??? Bigfoot isn't real??? I once lived in Saratoga, CA and one day when I was climbing my tower I saw 11 of them!!!!!

 

I mentioned no particular person Nathan.

It appears that you are the one doing the most dissing on whatever thread you pollute.
BTW you still need a spelling tutor.

Having worked with, for or just observing various individuals with "advanced degrees" over several decades I find some act as normal as others without those degrees, others act standoffish and not prone to general conversation with those not so blessed. Then there is the bottom example who would be those who are so full of themselves, compulsive braggarts, with deep inferiority complexes such as making a big deal over minor grammatical issues which are common in all walks of life these days, socially inept and offensive, and prone to take liberties with/embellish the truth at times. They love to be fawned over by their inferiors who are not able to deduce they have a knife at their back if they stray from the adulation.

The top two categories I have no disdain for at all and consider them normal well rounded humans and there are several on QRZ I converse with regularly without difficulty.
I pity the bottom category more than anything since they are usually brilliant in a very narrow area but either have a mental health or other medical problem that was not addressed by their parents, school, etc.

Carl

 

Its hard to imagine why these opinions have importance as some standard or norm.

I do not place people in pigeonholes or stereotypes. You just don't like me--and I don't care. That bothers you.Here, you claim I have a mental health issue because I couldn't care less. Nonsense; persiflage from your keyboard.

Your attempts at prevarication through verisimilitude are transparent to everyone, as per the examples so unveiled.

Just about all hams know what happened to Cushcraft--except for you, and you pulled a whopper of a lie and were called on it. Cushcraft was not "heading for dissolution". It received a pot of gold for the shareholders.

CUSHCRAFT SOLD FOR $90M USD. NOT "PENNIES" as you state.

You have to live with that--being caught in lies.

MFJ is a great company and Cushcraft is one of their signature brands.

Go do the EBITDA on the brand...still not pennies.

 

I was referring only to the "amateur products" as any thinking person could figure out.

Yep, that was no secret.

And how much was that sold for.....References please or are we all going to have to believe Nathan always tells the truth??
The only dissing and insults on here is from you.