MFJ 1979 Setup and Review 

Appreciate you sharing this video and information. Especially the links to equipment you used in the video. I ordered a MFJ 1979 from HRO Salem NH earlier today. My G90 arrived yesterday and I am looking forward to receiving Rig Expert later this week. I’ve been binge watching RU-vid videos to help me decide what equipment to get back on the Bands. You have inspired me get “ Radio Active “ soon thank you. 73 Steve AA4SH Tennessee

I have owned one of these antennas for years. I use it for portable operation and have four 16’ tape measure radials. Works great on all the bands you mentioned. Suggestion, I have taken a magic marker and drew a line around the antenna section for each band. This way you move the antenna up or down to the mark for the particular band you want to operate on. You can fine tune the SWR with either the build in tuner in your rig, if yours has one, if not I use a portable LDG tuner which does the trick depending the rig I’m using. Great video for the new comers getting into HF at a reasonable cost. 14:45

Strong work!

I've owned one of these for about 6-7 years now. I do not collapse/extend for each band: instead I just use an auto tuner and use full length of the antenna on each band. I made a few sets of radials too, really helps. I also use Wolf River coil sometimes but not often. I made an 80 meter wire that clips on to the top of the antenna and works great that way.

Great video, Ben!

I actually bought this as a remedy to another kit that I bought that was a 3-band vertical. The kit called for a 17 foot wire as the vertical radiator, but I could not find a fiberglass telescoping pole as now they are mostly carbon fiber. The carbon fiber would tune the radiator downward in frequency as the wire wrapped around it, but not in a way that was repeatable when removed and re-deployed. I used a trucker mirror mount modified for using on a short PVC mast, which provided a lot of give for winds over what the MFJ-1979 would sway in winds. So while my toroids where curing from having coating applied to give me 40 & 30M, I noticed that my MFJ-1979 would varied in frequency whenever I would deploy it by itself. Sometimes it would perfectly resonate on 20M, sometimes it would only tune down to 15.550 MHz according to my Rig Expert antenna analyser. I then noticed that the base may be loose, whatever crimp they used seems to have come loose enough to give it some play which manifests in some frustration trying to tune it. I have no idea if I could repair it, but operating for a day of POTA in 20-30 mph afternoon winds seems to have flexed it enough to cause it, I am assuming. I got enough sunburn playing with it I went to my backup endfed wire antennas in the meantime. The most power I have run through it is 5 watts CW and I hunted three states with it successfully, so in my estimation it wasn't even broken in yet. In the Colorado summer winds the phrase broken in isn't always good, LOL. Cheers, Davey - KU9L

I use mine on the back of my vehicle off the trailer mount with no radials, 10-20m from Alaska to the states, mostly FT8. I am sure it would be even better with radials. Not enough gain for SSB but would likely be better with radials. Great antenna, better than any hustlers, end fed, g5rv I have used for POTA from Alaska. KL7TC

Good review. There are not many channels that show the details of the swr. What's the length of the counterpoise ? 16 feet?

Awesome work Ben! New amateurs should stick to simple antennas. Don’t get too complicated until they’re ready, unless they’re prepared to deal with those more complex antennas. I’ve seen this first hand with a newer amateur. Keep it simple, silly goose! 73!

It would be nice if the antenna makers would give you ball park markings for each band. I don’t have a rig expert but it looks like a great tool.

How many contacts did you have with antenna?

Curious, why not just take the analyzer with you and watch as you incrementally shorten the whip? I don't think distance from whip would make much difference.

Do you have to use a Wolf River Coil to get 6-20 meters?

Good video but cut the inane music.