Excellent operational review, you just saved me a lot of time getting familiar with the tuner. I just purchased a 969 and now waiting for it to arrive. Thank you for going over the errors in the TM, I will ensure to jot down your changes and suggestions (in bold). Also to make a huge label to "disconnect Antenna before testing through DL." I'm an electronics tech, but my son may not be that handy when he starts his journey. 73!
Thanks for the clarification, I’ve had mine for less than a week and found the number range confusing. Opening the box I came to the same conclusion but thought I must be wrong. Quality issues have become a forte of MFJ and I was very hesitant prior to purchasing. However that aside I’m impressed with the unit. Whilst I considered the Palstar as an option but too expensive without any real advantage for my use. 73 M0AZE Mike
Great video and description, well done! I have had one of these for years and I don't ever remember now about it having a 9 volt battery inside! But, I always have the MFJ 12vdc wall adapter plugged in during operation. I will have to take a look at my original manual and see if the miss print is in there as well. I'll have to check all of this out; it is up at the farm with my old Kenwood TS-820S hybrid transceiver. I chose this antenna tuner because it has a dummy load which is necessary for tuning up a tube type of transmitter. I use it with a all-band dipole with 450 ohm window line feeder with great results. Thanks again for doing it!
Thanks for the info. However, my manual is verson 3C and has already been corrected by MFJ. I hardly ever use the 9 volt battery but I do use a 12 volt wall wart to power the front meter. I don't use the MFJ 969 much since I just got a Yaesu 991a which has a built in tuner and handles all my antennae 'cause they are all almost resonate. If you have resonate antennae you don't really need a tuner, which is really NOT a tuner. It's a box that matches the 50 ohm load from the radio to the antenna even if the antenna is not at 50 ohms. Cheers & 73 from W Rusty Lane K9POW in eastern Tennessee
Excellent presentation I would like to see you hook it up to different antennas And show how the system works Like 10 and 14 and 7 MHz And maybe the 50 own dummy load
Hi Chad, I think manual versions 3A (mine ) and 3B have the error, and it looks corrected in version 3C you posted. 3C/ Yours has a 2017 copyright date. A few weeks ago the version 3B was on the MFJ site, that is why I did this video. It might be that the MFJ has more ways/branches/paths to download a manual and thus that is why I got a 3B version recently. Or you just changed it! . Anyway cool. Since there are so many of these tuners in usage I did the video to maybe end some confusion. Regards
Thanks for the reply. Thus happens. The Inductor setting table values in the manual worked well as a starting point with two antennas I tried yesterday. Neither wire antenna is great thus I was surprised l that the manual's Inductor settings were a very good starting point to tune the two capacitors.
Hello Sir. Please can you help me? I bought the same tuner at eBay in mint condition, but I have a problem concerning the manual-3-numbers-counter wich is connected with the big cunductor-dialer-wheel and the electromagnit coil inside. First question: If you turn your conductor wheel to the absolutley right position (where the wheel stops), what is the position of the brass-connector inside the electromagentic coil? "My counter shows at this position "019" an the brass-connector is at the very backwards position. Second question: If you turn your inductor wheel now leftwards to the absolutley left postion, whats shows the counter at your tuner? My counter shows "932". I bet someone repaired anything inside the tuner (specially at the white plastic gearwheel but doesnt syncronizised the complet counter-coil-connectorposition. Sorry for my confuse english and regards from s/w Germany from Mr. Rainer Reinhardt
You sir, are WAY too "touchy", - PLEASE DON'T DO THAT !! You keep putting your (dirty) finger and thumb all over the coil of that roller inductor, and on multiple occasions you appear to be "squeezing" the turns on that roller inductor. It's so bad, that I had to abort the video, - I couldn't watch the whole thing. When you paw up the windings of that roller inductor like that with your (dirty fingers/thumb), you are transferring all sorts of contaminants to the surface of the wire. Oil, salt, dirt, and whatever else is on your dirty fingers/thumb. Thing is, by you "pawing" everything up like that, and by you keep TOUCHING/squeezing the windings (and everything else) like that, it DETRACTS from the video - all people see is your fingers, thumbs, hands, - and that doesn't ADD to what you are trying to explain, but rather adds a HUGE distraction. Fact is, you don't even need to do ANY of that touching/squeezing/pointing to get your information across. If you still feel the uncontrollable urge to "point" to things in your videos, please use something a lot less distracting like a pen/pencil, and use then use it SPARINGLY ! Thank you ...
Outstanding video! Thanks for the comprehensive overview and your thoughtful insights, especially the manual correction.
Absolutely best roller tuning explanation to date.
Excellent operational review, you just saved me a lot of time getting familiar with the tuner. I just purchased a 969 and now waiting for it to arrive. Thank you for going over the errors in the TM, I will ensure to jot down your changes and suggestions (in bold). Also to make a huge label to "disconnect Antenna before testing through DL." I'm an electronics tech, but my son may not be that handy when he starts his journey. 73!
Thanks for the clarification, I’ve had mine for less than a week and found the number range confusing. Opening the box I came to the same conclusion but thought I must be wrong. Quality issues have become a forte of MFJ and I was very hesitant prior to purchasing. However that aside I’m impressed with the unit. Whilst I considered the Palstar as an option but too expensive without any real advantage for my use. 73 M0AZE Mike
Great video and description, well done! I have had one of these for years and I don't ever remember now about it having a 9 volt battery inside! But, I always have the MFJ 12vdc wall adapter plugged in during operation. I will have to take a look at my original manual and see if the miss print is in there as well. I'll have to check all of this out; it is up at the farm with my old Kenwood TS-820S hybrid transceiver. I chose this antenna tuner because it has a dummy load which is necessary for tuning up a tube type of transmitter. I use it with a all-band dipole with 450 ohm window line feeder with great results. Thanks again for doing it!
A very good video on this tuner i have on thank you.
Thanks for the info. However, my manual is verson 3C and has already been corrected by MFJ. I hardly ever use the 9 volt battery but I do use a 12 volt wall wart to power the front meter. I don't use the MFJ 969 much since I just got a Yaesu 991a which has a built in tuner and handles all my antennae 'cause they are all almost resonate. If you have resonate antennae you don't really need a tuner, which is really NOT a tuner. It's a box that matches the 50 ohm load from the radio to the antenna even if the antenna is not at 50 ohms. Cheers & 73 from W Rusty Lane K9POW in eastern Tennessee
My version 2A manual has the same thing. Thanks for the info!
Excellent presentation I would like to see you hook it up to different antennas And show how the system works Like 10 and 14 and 7 MHz And maybe the 50 own dummy load
An excellent look at this tuner. A bit long but super explanation of how it works. Watch to the end noobs.. 73
Same thing in the manual that I downloaded for my new MFJ-969 Revision 2 Date 01/15/97 that is what's on the schematic .
Good video. Practical advice.
If you are interested, MFJ has a corrected version on their website. MFJ-969 revision 3C.www.mfjenterprises.com/support.php?productid=MFJ-969
Hi Chad, I think manual versions 3A (mine ) and 3B have the error, and it looks corrected in version 3C you posted. 3C/ Yours has a 2017 copyright date. A few weeks ago the version 3B was on the MFJ site, that is why I did this video. It might be that the MFJ has more ways/branches/paths to download a manual and thus that is why I got a 3B version recently. Or you just changed it! . Anyway cool. Since there are so many of these tuners in usage I did the video to maybe end some confusion. Regards
You are right! MFJ changed it today based on your suggestions! These days a lot of ways to give feedback to the factory.
Thanks for the reply. Thus happens. The Inductor setting table values in the manual worked well as a starting point with two antennas I tried yesterday. Neither wire antenna is great thus I was surprised l that the manual's Inductor settings were a very good starting point to tune the two capacitors.
Im curious about material used for roller coil inductor. Is this Aluminium ?
tinned copper
Hello Sir. Please can you help me? I bought the same tuner at eBay in mint condition, but I have a problem concerning the manual-3-numbers-counter wich is connected with the big cunductor-dialer-wheel and the electromagnit coil inside. First question: If you turn your conductor wheel to the absolutley right position (where the wheel stops), what is the position of the brass-connector inside the electromagentic coil? "My counter shows at this position "019" an the brass-connector is at the very backwards position. Second question: If you turn your inductor wheel now leftwards to the absolutley left postion, whats shows the counter at your tuner? My counter shows "932". I bet someone repaired anything inside the tuner (specially at the white plastic gearwheel but doesnt syncronizised the complet counter-coil-connectorposition. Sorry for my confuse english and regards from s/w Germany from Mr. Rainer Reinhardt
Mine goes from 125 with roller at the rear until, and 000 at front of tuner.
Perfect, thanks for the information. Now I have spareparts (toothwheels + counter) and I will repair the tuner if I find the time ;-) ...
Directions in chinglish
You sir, are WAY too "touchy", - PLEASE DON'T DO THAT !!
You keep putting your (dirty) finger and thumb all over the coil of that roller inductor, and on multiple occasions you appear to be "squeezing" the turns on that roller inductor.
It's so bad, that I had to abort the video, - I couldn't watch the whole thing.
When you paw up the windings of that roller inductor like that with your (dirty fingers/thumb), you are transferring all sorts of contaminants to the surface of the wire. Oil, salt, dirt, and whatever else is on your dirty fingers/thumb.
Thing is, by you "pawing" everything up like that, and by you keep TOUCHING/squeezing the windings (and everything else) like that, it DETRACTS from the video - all people see is your fingers, thumbs, hands, - and that doesn't ADD to what you are trying to explain, but rather adds a HUGE distraction.
Fact is, you don't even need to do ANY of that touching/squeezing/pointing to get your information across.
If you still feel the uncontrollable urge to "point" to things in your videos, please use something a lot less distracting like a pen/pencil, and use then use it SPARINGLY !
Thank you ...