It's disappointing to see any US based manufacturer of any kind of equipment close up business. I can't tell what the percentage of it that was made in US, but if this means more things being made overseas then it's a loss for everyone.
@@BalticLab For 50+ years, Martin employed hundreds of Americans building, assembling, packaging and shipping 1000s of ham related products. can't fault him for that at all.
@@K6UDA You've got the cart before the horse. Those hundreds of Americans no longer have an employer in part of those business decisions that lead to the inevitable end. While sure, the the employment opportunities and market penetration depth back in the days were awesome, they also hold a responsibility towards their employees. And their customers ultimately. And I'll gladly restate that they would have never even survived this long if Americans wouldn't have such an extreme "made in the USA" fetish. Americans will absolutely prefer that "American" label over quality any time of the day. Don't get me wrong, they have good stuff and in my early days I used lots of MFJ gear. Doesn't change the fact though that it's poor business decisions leading to this end. I mean it always is when a company closes shop, so that claim of mine is kinda irrefutable. Don't know of many companies that had to close down because of smart, strategic business decisions.
MFJ has been a staple in my shack and I'm sorry to see it all come to the end. It's the end of an era and as I'm ageing myself I can understand why Martin is calling it quits. Best wishes for him and all of us who enjoyed this hobby over the decades who will certainly miss the MFJ brand items that played an important part of our life in the radio hobby.....73 Martin, you were really appreciated my friend, and thanks Bob for the video tribute. ... From NQ0A...
You didn't read elsewhere yet: been up for sale since Nov but no interest. Lots of businesses going belly up in this high interest & inflation environment, MFJ is far from alone. If you look closely at Gigaparts I think they'll be next for dropping their ham radio lines.
@@ms_nop MFJ made a lot of products over several brands, I can't imagine that none of them were profitable. If any were profitable, there would be interest in acquiring them. Didn't know they were up for sale, and details are probably not public, but it's unlikely there were no interested buyers. It is possible that this is a M&A tactic to bring better offers to the table.
MFJ will be missed. We have all relied upon this company for years. Their closure will create a void in ham radio equipment supply. It is tough enough now to find what we need. MFJ's closure isn't going to make it any easier. You will be missed Martin. Thank you for your years of service. Go and enjoy what is left of your life.
I'm pretty sure that intrested parties will find the MFJ line of products a good place to invest their money. The market for mfj's products is still here. Somebody will probably buy that business and continue serving the ham radio community. It's not the end of the world.
I'm both Shocked & Saddened to Hear This 🙏 We are moving towards the closure of Ham Radio as we have known it too. In Australia we are transitioning from Apparatus licenses into Class Licenses (Like CB). We need to keep an eye out and also fight against some potential changes that may further disempower we the People.
He should let the employees take over the business and keep the business going best way to employees are always going to have a job and you know they're going to go work if they own the business
I have purchased numerous MFJ products over the past 32 years, never had a problem with them performing. Will miss the several companies and their products, as other higher priced products will try to fill the void...
sorry to hear that, I don't know a ham who doesn't have some MFJ product in his shack, i have one of their analog tuners in my own station 73 to him kl4gu
Heard about this toady, very sad, I love MFJ products, I have one of their manual tuners, auto tuner and Loop tuners and I love them. Their Loop tuners are particularly amazing ! What a shame.
I never was a big fan of MFJ. So much of their stuff was re-branded, like power supplies. MFJ bought them, put a MFJ sticker on them and added more to the price. I've read a lot about their poor quality but not sure if that is reason for closing; probably Martin just had enough at age 80.
I see a lot of BS from hams who know nothing about running a manufacturing business. I worked in electronics manufacturing for most of my career. All the US employers I had are long shut down. The Chinese were literally handed our IP by large corporations that didn't give a shit about American workers or our quality of life here. We happily accepted so-called lower prices when Walmart turned on a dime from trucks with American flags on them to 100% Chinese made goods. The owners got filthy rich beyond our pathetically poor ability to comprehend math and our inability to think long-term. All of MFJ products are quite basic and outdated designs. I can only imagine how outdated their production lines and manufacturing systems must be. For a few million bucks it could be turned around if highly automated. You can't expect the people working there to suddenly become high quality, high automation manufacturers without the knowledge and investment needed to turn the mess around. I am sure they are also on the end of the list to buy components at low prices. The big makers have annual contracts and they absorb most of the production from the high quality suppliers in Asia before a shop like MFJ would even get a shot at buying from them. This is a big deal for us hams because literally half the ads in the final printed QST magazine last December was from MFJ. It must have been their hail Mary pass in hopes of a miracle. I would imagine some of the lines will be picked up, but when you strip out MFJ from the HRO catalog, there goes 20 pages of goods. This will put a big hurting on the last standing retailers in our space. Expert a rush of demand and sharply rising prices on everything related to ham radio.
The one word that sticks out is COVID started the ball rolling that killed the Business. Two weeks hiatus turned into the current situation getting this Ham History Lesson in Bio weapon terror victims. Thanks for the years of hard work and great products MFJ.
Probably more to that than just Covid. Insane interest rate hikes, utilities, short term capitol loan rate hikes, labor shortages from continuing government handouts ect...
Who pandemic treaty passing through us dept of health right now, same entity doing the funding and teacher trainings for equity and inclusion. 14 trillion dollar reparations bill passing through ca. Is federal through executive order and UN global covenant of mayors mandate.
Predicatble development. MFJ primarily thrived on the fact that many Americans prefer to pay for a "Made in the USA" label than for quality. I am sure we all know plenty of MFJ quality (or lack thereof) stories. Don't get me wrong, it's sad. But was nonetheless very predictable. They would have had so much potential, even nowadays, if they'd just focused a bit more on quality. And yes, they might have been there for hams for 55 years, but rethink my second sentence in that regards. Before I moved to the US, I never heard of MFJ, and after I left the USA, I never came across it again in the real world. If the quality would be at least acceptable, the brand would be just as popular outside of the USA. That said, I feel bad for the people behind the business. 73s DE AI5GW
