[TowerTalk] Cushcraft Parts from MFJ

[David Gilbert]

That video is the poster child for bad manufacturing practices, and it 
is no wonder they have the product quality problems they do.  It isn't a 
function of them being small, or being home grown ... it is purely a 
function of nobody there having the slightest clue regarding modern 
manufacturing principles, most of which would actually save them money.  
It would take a long time to document all the obvious things you can 
pick out of that video alone.

They do indeed have some pretty good ideas, and there really isn't 
anyone who offers the range of products they do at reasonable prices, 
but there also isn't anyone else who consistently produces such horrible 
product quality.  I've bought several MFJ products over the years and 
fully half of them had significant quality problems.  I really wish they 
would get their act together, but until they do they've seen the last of 
my money.

A couple of years ago I did a rather extensive survey of the product 
ratings on eHam comparing MFJ with the average of all other vendors for 
the products that MFJ made (I had the time then and I was curious).  
Even though the ratings on eHam are notoriously clustered toward the 
high end (mostly 4's and 5's, with a sprinkling of 0's and 1's for 
companies with bad service) MFJ was more than a full point below the 
average of everyone else for all products except clocks!

73,
Dave   AB7E



On 11/21/2010 8:18 AM, n4zkf wrote:
>
> Has anyone seen the video on this place? They are actually proud of their
> 2X4 built benches with carpet on them. (static?) They also show off a 35
> year old dirty pool
> wave solder machine. They have all the equipment they are building stacked
> on top of each other. No wonder it's all scratched. It's a shame, they have
> some great ideas. Just no QC.
>
> Dave n4zkf