MFJ Enterprises Original MFJ-949E 1.8-30 MHz 300 Watt Deluxe Versa Tuner II Antenna Tuner

Way too touchy when tuning.

Tuner works well. Able to easily tune my Dipole in with it. Housing is well made and controls are simple. Its nice having the dummy load built in and a two antenna hookups. Great tuner for the money.

Using this on a multiband EFHW antenna and it works great. I tweaked the antenna to get the SWR between 1.5 to 1.7 and the manual tuning was a breeze. Yes, this MFJ tuner can tune SWR well out of the FT-991A 3.0 range, but investing the time to get your antenna SWR as low as possible makes your entire configuration much more efficient. The Yaesu FT-991A has an internal tuner but I wanted to perform the tuning without going off frequency and engaging the internal tuner and potentially broadcasting on top of someone else. This is especially true for busy days on the bands. I initially tuned on the center of the band and recorded the Transmitter Matching, Inductor Selector, and Antenna Matching values for each band. As you move off center of the band you will find that you almost always only have to adjust the transmitter matching value and I do that while calling. Some people have complained that the edges of the unit shows cracked paint. This is only because of the manufacturing process where the metal is bent to form the case after it is painted. It is easy to clean up if you get one that shows this and it really bothers you. The only other thing I would advise for any new HAM radio operators is to invest in the best coax! I use LMR 400 for my permanent installation and even use an LMR 400 jumper between the radio and the tuner. MPD Digital coax is good quality if you want to purchase it here on Amazon. 73! KD2ZTA

muy desconforme

I received my tuner promptly, it was well packed and didnt have any shipping damage. Pleased with the overall transaction. My order was fulfilled by GigaParts and they shipped promptly. The actual item, however, is in dire need of improved quality control from the manufacturer. MFJ has a spotty reputation and its pretty clear that they are challenged in striking the balance between quality and low prices. Id rather they spend a little more on the QC process even if it means charging a bit more for the products. As I said, my unit arrived entirely unscathed by any of the shipping it had endured prior to reaching me. When I opened the box containing the tuner, all looked to be in fine condition. That became a different story when I hooked it up to a rig though. I found that the tuner couldnt tune a match (3:1 VSWR was its best) to either its own internal or to an external 50 ohm dummy load. Using the bypass function to the external dummy load, the match was 1:1. Investigating further by looking inside the unit, I found that the variable capacitor for the antenna side of the T had its blades bent, shorting each one to its partner through the entire arc of rotation. There is no way that this unit passed any sort of quality control before it left MFJ, given the fact that there was no physical damage to the shipping box, the unit box or the unit itself. Since Ive opened the unit to investigate this failure, Ive voided the warranty. Ill either repair the capacitor or replace it. Overall, these are not bad units, but, please be sure to give them a good examination before putting them into actual use.

For Petes sake! I spent $200 and you cant even include a 12 inch connector coax cable. What?, it would cost you another 50. cents. Now I have to go an order another cable, or drive 45 minutes one way to the only Ham Radio Outlet store in my city. Just Cheap cheap cheap. Well I am revising my review down to 1 star. I called both the technical services number and the factory number. The first was a wireless number that was not is service (tried it 3 times). The second was a mobile with a mail box that had not been set up. Just plain Lousy series MFJ

This tuner will tune almost anything. The basic model has been around a long time and has proven to be a reliable tuner. Its rather compact for a tuner and should fit into most ham stations. Its fairly easy to tune, and once you tune it for a particular antenna, if you keep a chart nearby, you can readily set it to give you a perfect match on a particular portion of any ham band between 160-10 meters, and if you have the latest model, 6 meters also (I havent personally tried it on 6M). Tuneup on a frequency the first time is easy. First, rotate the three tuning knobs for best reception as a starting point. Then, using low power (just enough to get a full scale meter reading at the low power range of the SWR meter), key the transmitter for a few seconds while making adjustments with the three knobs until you see a low SWR or a perfect match. While its unlikely that youll not get close to a perfect match, if you cant, its time to make adjustments to your antenna, or change its length, whatever it takes. There is a better tuner MFJ makes that has a roller inductor instead of a switched/tapped inductor (it handles 300 watts, too), but this one should match almost any antenna you have without adding the expense of the roller inductor (and it takes a little longer to get the more expensive one tuned the first time for a frequency since you have unlimited steps in between what you would have on this tuner). I like the cross-needle SWR meter that doubles as a power meter. It allows you to quickly see your SWR by looking at where the two needles cross. You cant ask for much more than this for a tuner for a typical HF 100-200 watt ham transceiver, unless you move into the automatic tuners, which are great (I have two of the MFJ auto-tuners, too). But for the price, this is a rugged little tuner. If you are tuning a random wire, make sure you have a good ground or counterpoise (not just a pipe driven into the ground). Ive used this successfully with a 135 foot random wire on all HF bands. It will also let you work the portions of the HF bands on trap verticals/dipoles where the SWR goes high outside the bandwidth of the antenna, making it useful outside the band section(s) where it would normally provide a 50 ohm match for your rig.

works good

Im satisfied with this tuner because it does what I need to do, so I gave it five stars. As a manual tuner, it is a little awkward to use compared to an automatic tuner, so I dropped a star for ease of use. The box has a power connector in the back to put in 12V to power the light. I dont have easy access to a 12V connector so I have not connected, and the tuner works just fine without any power, since the 12V is only for the lamp.

works excellent....thank you amazon..