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Posted: 4/26/2024 10:07:10 PM EDT
[#1]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Awful lot of childish Trolls here off topic and slinging personal attacks. All in violation of Forum rules No intelligent comments? |
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Posted: 4/26/2024 11:26:13 PM EDT
[#2]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Awful lot of childish Trolls here off topic and slinging personal attacks. All in violation of Forum rules No intelligent comments? Click. |
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Posted: 4/27/2024 9:32:50 AM EDT
[#3]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Awful lot of childish Trolls here off topic and slinging personal attacks. All in violation of Forum rules No intelligent comments? We typically maintain a level of decorum well within the rules. Now and then someone will get a little sporty, but it is usually in jest. This forum has essentially been my Elmer and has taught me all kinds of useful stuff. A lot of very knowledgeable hams post here; it is an invaluable resource. Plus we often speak with each other on the weekly net. So... don't rush to judgement. |
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Posted: 4/27/2024 5:07:56 PM EDT
[#4]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Is an al811 an ok amp? Tempted to pick one up before they close. Personal opinion here: Ok as a used product in good shape and you didn't pay much for it? yeah, ok. But tubes are more expensive all the time. OK as a new purchase? Not in my opinion. They cost too much. Save your money for a good solid state amp. My 811H got sold and the money helped toward the purchase of on of KM3KM's nice 1200 watt solid state amps. Real bargain at the time. Only $2499 including free shipping. 6 hours later I had a beautiful amp. Now there is a waiting list and they only sell complete finished amps not kits. Oh well. Still a bargain though if you can stand to wait on a list. good time to save your pennies and dimes. The will require $1200 down payment when they start the construction of your amp. Which would be many months after order placed. About 3 weeks later you get the amp and they will want the rest of their money. Not a bad deal. So Ameritron amp? I don't think so. I looked inside of a couple of their solid state amps. And I was NOT impressed. Looks like something I would make in my garage. Compared to the inside of my Mercury IIIs. Not even close. Everyone has an opinion, These are my opinions. Take them for what you will. My Mercury IIIs has been flawless for over 3 1/2 years now. Heavy usage and lot of it FT8 service which really stresses amps. Can't run 1200 watts on FT8 of course. 700 maximum in that mode. The protection circuitry makes sure of that. |
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Posted: 4/27/2024 7:43:23 PM EDT
[#5]
Story also on ARRL's website.
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Posted: 4/27/2024 8:54:05 PM EDT
[#6]
Someone on Facebook just speculated that MFJ going out is why the ARRL jacked up membership fees and killed off the printed magazine unless you were willing to pay extra. Think about how many full pages ads MFJ ran in the magazine.
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Posted: 4/27/2024 8:59:26 PM EDT
[#7]
I don't think i have ever seen their magazine. Dave casler is probably having vapors. That guy slobbers the knob of mfj like very few dedicated youtubers.
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Posted: 4/27/2024 9:42:03 PM EDT
[#8]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I don't think i have ever seen their magazine. Dave casler is probably having vapors. That guy slobbers the knob of mfj like very few dedicated youtubers. I had to stop listening to Casler. His, "A dipole is a dipole," while staring at the camera manically got old. He was always a broken record. And yes, his MFJ love was too much. |
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Posted: 4/27/2024 9:54:24 PM EDT
[#9]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Someone on Facebook just speculated that MFJ going out is why the ARRL jacked up membership fees and killed off the printed magazine unless you were willing to pay extra. Think about how many full pages ads MFJ ran in the magazine. Nah, they've been having problems since the coof started making the rounds. I imagine supply chain shortages caused significant price jumps for his supply costs which has made the business less and less viable over the years. They're not the only one who's felt the squeeze. |
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Posted: 4/27/2024 10:00:59 PM EDT
[#10]
He's 80 years old and wants to retire . . . . I hope to hell I'm not working at that age 
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Posted: 4/28/2024 10:26:02 AM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Nah, they've been having problems since the coof started making the rounds. I imagine supply chain shortages caused significant price jumps for his supply costs which has made the business less and less viable over the years. They're not the only one who's felt the squeeze. You may have misinterpreted what I said. I understand that MFJ has been having problems and that the owner is 82 and wants to retire. The business has been for sale for a couple of years with no takers. This is fairly well known and I have no argument with any of that. The point that the fellow speculating was making was that MFJ was pouring MANY thousands of dollars for print advertising into the ARRL magazine every month. Some say almost $40k per month (unconfirmed). ARRL knew that this ad money was about to come to an end, and that there were no other advertisers who were going to suddenly appear to make up those dollars that went a long way toward supporting the production and mailing of the paper magazine. The speculation was that it is because of the impending loss of the MFJ ad revenue that the ARRL decided to essentially pull the plug on the paper version of the magazine and jack up their dues structure. I have no idea how true it is, but loss of ad revenue is what has killed off a lot of newspapers and magazines, so it is not too much of a stretch to think there might be some truth to it. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 10:14:29 PM EDT
[#12]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Hopefully they dump inventory at Xenia. I would get a higher rated manual tuner. |
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Posted: 5/2/2024 10:15:18 PM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Did you come from eHam or QRZ to post this? Lots of sad ham anger in your post. |
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Posted: 5/3/2024 1:10:56 PM EDT
[#14]
 Attached FileI bought a brand new MFJ-939 from DX Engineering before the supply dried up to use for POTA . It's plug and play with my Yaesu FTDX-10 and my FT-891. 
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Posted: 5/3/2024 2:40:04 PM EDT
[#15]
I just enjoy collecting Fooler boxes. Between brand-specific models and a few others from places like LDG, Dentron and MFJ I'll bet you I have a hundred of them in the stash. Including some prototypes which were never released to market (i.e., Heathkit SB-670).
Now I'll go fool the DX into working me on FT8. Gotta get them VSWRs down first. Dit-dit. |
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Posted: 5/3/2024 4:07:41 PM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted: He's 80 years old and wants to retire . . . . I hope to hell I'm not working at that age I hope I am still alive at that age. 
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Posted: 5/3/2024 5:56:23 PM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I just enjoy collecting Fooler boxes. Between brand-specific models and a few others from places like LDG, Dentron and MFJ I'll bet you I have a hundred of them in the stash. Including some prototypes which were never released to market (i.e., Heathkit SB-670). Now I'll go fool the DX into working me on FT8. Gotta get them VSWRs down first. Dit-dit. "Fooler-Box"... WTF over?  The Ultimate Insult - May God Have Mercy On Your Soul - Billy Madison (Academic Decathlon) |
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Posted: 5/3/2024 7:52:42 PM EDT
[#18]
Quote HistoryQuote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: I just enjoy collecting Fooler boxes. Between brand-specific models and a few others from places like LDG, Dentron and MFJ I'll bet you I have a hundred of them in the stash. Including some prototypes which were never released to market (i.e., Heathkit SB-670). Now I'll go fool the DX into working me on FT8. Gotta get them VSWRs down first. Dit-dit. "Fooler-Box"... WTF over?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hfYJsQAhl0See assorted ramblings earlier in thread. But not by yours truly. Starts on Page 1. |
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Posted: 5/3/2024 8:51:16 PM EDT
[#19]
I missed most of the earlier sad ham drama, so “Fooler Box” went over my head.
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Posted: 5/3/2024 10:24:14 PM EDT
[#20]
He means an antenna tuner, Walt Maxwell and Kurt N Sterba would disagree as well!
73, Rob |
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Posted: 5/3/2024 11:02:33 PM EDT
[#21]
It's funny how using a tuner is frowned upon, but using fixed value components at the feedpoint isn't.
I've got a capacitor across my mobile antenna feedpoint, and an inductor across my 6BTV feed point. But I like having tuners available, I have several (3 automatic and 5 manual). I just got a Palstar 2kW tuner delivered today.  It is my first and only roller inductor tuner.
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Posted: 5/3/2024 11:03:56 PM EDT
[#22]
impedance matcher   AT&T Archives: Similiarities of Wave Behavior (Bonus Edition) |
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Posted: 5/4/2024 12:05:52 AM EDT
[#23]
Quote HistoryQuoted: It's funny how using a tuner is frowned upon, but using fixed value components at the feedpoint isn't. I've got a capacitor across my mobile antenna feedpoint, and an inductor across my 6BTV feed point. But I like having tuners available, I have several (3 automatic and 5 manual). I just got a Palstar 2kW tuner delivered today. It is my first and only roller inductor tuner.You'll enjoy the roller inductor tuner! Tune with 10 watts or less so you don't arc it during bad mismatches, when I'm close to a match I'll move the roller at 100 watts, then do a final polish on the tune with the capacitors at full power. |
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Posted: 5/4/2024 12:06:09 AM EDT
[#24]
Double tap
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Posted: 5/4/2024 8:43:13 AM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted: You'll enjoy the roller inductor tuner! Tune with 10 watts or less so you don't arc it during bad mismatches, when I'm close to a match I'll move the roller at 100 watts, then do a final polish on the tune with the capacitors at full power. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: It's funny how using a tuner is frowned upon, but using fixed value components at the feedpoint isn't. I've got a capacitor across my mobile antenna feedpoint, and an inductor across my 6BTV feed point. But I like having tuners available, I have several (3 automatic and 5 manual). I just got a Palstar 2kW tuner delivered today. It is my first and only roller inductor tuner.You'll enjoy the roller inductor tuner! Tune with 10 watts or less so you don't arc it during bad mismatches, when I'm close to a match I'll move the roller at 100 watts, then do a final polish on the tune with the capacitors at full power. The Heathkit SB-670 I mentioned is a roller inductor type. The other models of that type I use are Ten-Tec 238 and 253. When I get the new operating position done, some combo of TT rigs (Omni V/VI/Paragon II), a pair of 420 amps and the 253 tuners will make up a portion of the contemporary bench. The Heathkit stuff goes on the vintage side. Have a couple Corsair IIs kicking around too. They're not auto-bandswitching like the Omnis and later TT rigs but they're decent CW boxes. Might find a Titan II at some point to run with them and the 238. |
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Posted: 5/4/2024 11:46:49 AM EDT
[#26]
Quote HistoryAwesome video. Bell Labs was an amazing place. I can't understand the hate on tuners, unless someone wanted the internals of their radio to be part of the resonant antenna circuit without the benefit of an isolation device. As the video said, a resonant electrical system is a large store of energy with high voltages and currents. Seems fool hardy to me. |
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Posted: 5/4/2024 12:49:32 PM EDT
[#27]
Additionally, there are some instances where a
It's fairly easy to tune a 40M dipole made of 12ga wire for a 2:1 VSWR bandwidth of 200KHz; most of the ones I've built or used are good for 250KHz. Where it gets tricky is 75/80 and 160M. Owing to conductor Q as a function of length-to-diameter, the bandwidth will be very narrow. We can either increase conductor diameter to get more bandwidth, or use a tuner. A 160M construct with 24" diameter halves (a so-called cage dipole) may be out of reach of many in terms of space and cost, but a tuner allows the use of single wire elements. |
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Posted: 5/4/2024 5:34:00 PM EDT
[#28]
Quote HistoryQuoted: You'll enjoy the roller inductor tuner! Tune with 10 watts or less so you don't arc it during bad mismatches, when I'm close to a match I'll move the roller at 100 watts, then do a final polish on the tune with the capacitors at full power. That make sense, thanks for the tip. I've got a multi band antenna that's got pretty good SWR on most bands, but I wanted this to make sure the match was as good as it can get. Also, I wanted it for the built-in meter, which will help see how the amp is performing. My FT-450D has an SWR check feature that I think might reduce power to 5W while the button is pressed. If so, that would be a convenient way to tune up. I might build one of those standby switch boxes that goes in line with the amp cable so you can leave the relay in pass-through mode for initial tuning. I know I have some RCA jacks somewhere in my junk boxes. |
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Posted: 5/4/2024 5:59:04 PM EDT
[#29]
Quote HistoryThat was VERY interesting. |
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Posted: 5/4/2024 7:10:17 PM EDT
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuoted: You'll enjoy the roller inductor tuner! Tune with 10 watts or less so you don't arc it during bad mismatches, when I'm close to a match I'll move the roller at 100 watts, then do a final polish on the tune with the capacitors at full power. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: It's funny how using a tuner is frowned upon, but using fixed value components at the feedpoint isn't. I've got a capacitor across my mobile antenna feedpoint, and an inductor across my 6BTV feed point. But I like having tuners available, I have several (3 automatic and 5 manual). I just got a Palstar 2kW tuner delivered today. It is my first and only roller inductor tuner.You'll enjoy the roller inductor tuner! Tune with 10 watts or less so you don't arc it during bad mismatches, when I'm close to a match I'll move the roller at 100 watts, then do a final polish on the tune with the capacitors at full power. I really wish they'd just build a nano-vna into the tuner so you don't have to use any transmitter power to tune. I'm temped to hack one together. |
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Posted: 5/5/2024 9:28:57 AM EDT
[#31]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I really wish they'd just build a nano-vna into the tuner so you don't have to use any transmitter power to tune. I'm temped to hack one together. That really is a great product idea! |
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Posted: 5/5/2024 9:45:07 AM EDT
[#32]
Quote HistoryQuoted: That really is a great product idea! Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: I really wish they'd just build a nano-vna into the tuner so you don't have to use any transmitter power to tune. I'm temped to hack one together. That really is a great product idea! calibrating it would be an issue. maybe a series of coax switches to swith the open, 50 ohm, and short in and out then connect to the signal coax to tune. Seems easier and quicker to just tune at low power. I use 5 watts tune signal to tune the Johnson KW Matchbox I modded for 160 meters then put labels for different freqs. |
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Posted: 5/5/2024 7:00:24 PM EDT
[#33]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I really wish they'd just build a nano-vna into the tuner so you don't have to use any transmitter power to tune. I'm temped to hack one together. Having one on-board in the tuner would be great. Most tuners already have power brought in for meter illumination that you could tap to power the VNA. |
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Posted: 5/8/2024 7:15:28 PM EDT
[#34]
I heard a rumor somewhere on the net, that DXE made an offer, but it was refused by MFJ.
It might just be internet bushwa, as usual, though. They bought Butternut and other antennas, so it wouldn't be out of character for them. I hope somebody keeps Ameritron going at least. |
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Posted: 5/8/2024 8:11:47 PM EDT
[#35]
The things I would like to see "picked up" are Cushcraft, (I have one) and HyGain CDE rotors. I have some.
I am selfish, I want the things I own picked up with continuing parts availability. |
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Posted: 5/9/2024 5:36:01 PM EDT
[#36]
@Gamma762
Saw this at DX Engineering https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/reu-zero-ii Rig Expert makes a VNA project board that works with their AntScope software. If you could somehow get it to work with Bluetooth like their Stick Pro, you wouldn't even need a display on your tuner. |
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Posted: 5/9/2024 9:43:46 PM EDT
[#37]
What I'd really like to see happen is to take the next step beyond MFJ's analytical tuner.... Give the tuner an antenna, the tuner sweeps with its built-in analyzer and computes tuning solutions, then just automatically clicks in the needed tuning based on CAT data from the radio as far as whatever frequency the radio is set to transmit on. The hardware to do it is pretty trivial at this point, just needs to be put together and the programming written.
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Posted: 5/10/2024 2:37:12 AM EDT
[#38]
Quote HistoryQuoted: What I'd really like to see happen is to take the next step beyond MFJ's analytical tuner.... Give the tuner an antenna, the tuner sweeps with its built-in analyzer and computes tuning solutions, then just automatically clicks in the needed tuning based on CAT data from the radio as far as whatever frequency the radio is set to transmit on. The hardware to do it is pretty trivial at this point, just needs to be put together and the programming written. That would be so much better than on-the-air automatic tuning at 5 or more different spots in every band. You could even have it sweep the amateur bands separately for better resolution and as you say, work out tuning solutions for each band. If it did this every time you powered on the tuner, it might even save you from high SWR in the event of antenna damage or changes that occurred since the last time you used it. Have it switch in a dummy load instead of the antenna if it detects a high SWR condition on power up so if you try to TX no damage occurs. The next logical step is a CAT control output when it detects a high SWR condition to disable TX on the radio, or if that isn't possible for a given radio, at least reduce output power to minimum. Though many radios already disable TX if they see a bad mismatch. My Yaesus do, anyway. |
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Posted: 5/13/2024 8:01:35 AM EDT
[#39]
I’m from Starkville, born and semi raised there, was there yesterday, have two boys going to MSU, wife love it AND I’m acquaintances with the owner of GigaParts (Super nice guy, humble, personable; He’s a big S&W revolver collector)
Next time I bump into him, I’m going to propose he buy MFJ and I move there to run it for him. Everybody’s happy! |
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Posted: 5/23/2024 9:16:30 PM EDT
[#40]
Quote HistoryQuoted: What I'd really like to see happen is to take the next step beyond MFJ's analytical tuner.... Give the tuner an antenna, the tuner sweeps with its built-in analyzer and computes tuning solutions, then just automatically clicks in the needed tuning based on CAT data from the radio as far as whatever frequency the radio is set to transmit on. The hardware to do it is pretty trivial at this point, just needs to be put together and the programming written. I would buy that. |
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Posted: 5/23/2024 9:29:28 PM EDT
[#41]
Quote HistoryQuoted: What I'd really like to see happen is to take the next step beyond MFJ's analytical tuner.... Give the tuner an antenna, the tuner sweeps with its built-in analyzer and computes tuning solutions, then just automatically clicks in the needed tuning based on CAT data from the radio as far as whatever frequency the radio is set to transmit on. The hardware to do it is pretty trivial at this point, just needs to be put together and the programming written. Xiegu radios have a sweep and tuner function much like you describe. |
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