Since putting up my apartment rooftop mini-W3EDP last winter, I've been wrangling it into 50 Ohm functionality with an MFJ-948 manual tuner. Works fine. However when switching bands the entire process gets a little tiresome. Not to mention that I fried one radio some years back with this thing, so I'm still a little gun-shy and overly-cautious when tuning up. Anyway, it's cumbersome. So on a lark while testing out the new FT-891 (review forthcoming this week) and swapping cables around, I tried plugging the MFJ-939Y autotuner I'd paired it with into my main home radio, the FTdx-1200. (Don't forget to go into the menus to switch the tuner from internal to external.) Mind you, the manual didn't exactly say it would work with this radio, but it did mention others in the series so I suspected that it would probably work. Or maybe just fry a kilobuck of hardware... what'stheworstthatcouldhappen? So I hooked it all up and:
Yeah, worked great, needn't have worried, should've begun using this thing from the get-go last January. I'm keeping the manual tuner in the path between the radio and the autotuner however, for both the crossed-needle power/reflected power/SWR display as well as for the coax cable switching capability.
Also note: The 939 powers just fine via the control cable, you don't need to plug it in to 12v separately. Not clear at all in the manual. In fact, there's a lot that's not exactly clear in that manual. Don't sweat it though, because with supported radios it's plug-and-play. (Almost. Remember, change the tuner menu setting to external.)
Here, you can read up on the specs at the manufacturer's web site, which includes several informative videos. I found a like-new one on MTC Radio's used page for about 1/3rd off – a lucky hit – but even at full list the 939 tuner's a bargain.
They make this in several Yaesu-compatible versions, as well as for Icom and Kenwood radios.
The convenience is good to have, at the level of not quite but almost game changing.
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