[TowerTalk] Parts from MFJ

[Jim Thomson]

Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2010 11:37:14 -0500
From: "Anthony W. DePrato" <wa4jqs at mikrotec.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Parts from MFJ


MFJ gave me 2 tuners and 2-  811h amps when i went to KC4 in 92 .. 
the amps worked but gave a lot of problems while we were in VP8 so we 
did go inside and fix a few problems before we left Stanley. good 
thing we had time to burn them in or we would have been in big 
trouble while on Thule. as for the tuners.. we did not try them 
before we got on the Island. how much can go wrong with a tuner 
????LMAO...  well setting in one of the tents about 3am i started 
smelling something burning like plastic looked over at the tuner and 
it was on fire... yes not just smoking but flames coming out of it. 
meter was on fire and melting down into the tuner . the cup of hot 
chok i was working on worked well on putting out the fire. well to 
make a long story short the second tuner burnt up a few days later.. 
and these were the big high power tuners at that time. gave then to 
Peter VP8WA when we got back for parts..
guess you still get what you pay for.
73 Tony

##  How the heck does one set a MFJ  3-kw tuner on FIRE... with a 
MFJ/Ameritron 811 Amplifier ? 

A  buddy of mine, VE7BPH,  had one of those  Dentron   '3kw CCS'  tuners'  he had bought
new, back in the late 70's, early 80's. One day he fired up his  Alpha 77-SX, and stuffed 
3 kw pep ssb into the tuner...and melted everything in it.  At the time, he didn't realize that the 
'3 kw'  actually meant  a 4%  duty cycle pulse tuning..into a  50 ohm, zero reactance, bird dummy load. 

Later... Jim   VE7RF