Your MFJ may not be "hosed" because it is sensitive to other frequency
RF as it energy detects broad-banded. Mine is unusable on antennas
because of a 50kw AM band tower about 1 mile away. OTOH my AIM4170
handles the same situation with just an small noise blip which easily
averages out.
Grant KZ1W
On 12/6/2010 10:30 AM, jim feldman wrote:
> The cast of players: Kenwood TS-940, Heath SA 2060 ant. tuner, MFJ 259. I
> was trying to use the MFJ to create a table of settings for the tuner. Just
> wasn't working (never could find a SWR much lower than say 1.8:1). After
> further reading, I tried the noise peaking method with C.out at max, C.in at
> about half and I dialed in L from the bottom. Once I had that (which got me
> surprisingly close), I turned the 940 power all the way down (around 10w),
> set the output to cw, hit transmit (after a quick ID) and dialed in a near
> 1:1 match in any band between 75-15. The TS-940 SWR readings were pretty
> close to the meter on the tuner.
>
> So who's right and why? In one corner we have the transmitter and tuner.
> Close enough I'd consider them the same. Should I prefer the tuner reading?
> In the other corner, we have the MFJ that wasn't even in the same ballpark.
> Is it hosed? I had it cabled to the tuner input for testing purposes. Is
> it because of the low output of the MFJ? I swapped around all cables except
> the output to the antenna. Put fresh cells in the MFJ.
>
> All connections were either RG8x (foil and braid) or RG213 except LMR400 out
> to the trapped vertical antenna. Yes, I'm aware of the efficiency issues
> here, but I'm on a small suburban lot with 35ft height restrictions and a YL
> who tolerates (just) my "metal pokey things" in her garden.
>
> thanks
> jim (w6jmf)
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