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+---- Thread: 3640 Net Topic Tomorrow April 28th 7pm (/showthread.php?tid=1198)
3640 Net Topic Tomorrow April 28th 7pm - Kevin VA3RCA - 2024-04-27
Topic 7pm tomorrow on the 3640 Net: MFJ Enterprises
On April 25th, Martin F. Jue, K5FLU, owner of MFJ Enterprises, announced they are ceasing manufacturing at their facility in Starkville, Mississippi.
The announcement came as a surprise. While COVID was hard on many companies, MFJ has continued to release new products as recently as the last few weeks, giving the outward appearance of a thriving company.
I think this is a tragedy for amateur Radio, that could lead to less availability of products and higher prices for equipment across the hobby.
What do you think? Is this a big deal?
What will the impact be on our hobby?
What MFJ products do you own?
Any MFJ stories to tell?
More information:
MFJ has been in business for 52 years, and today includes a number of companies they acquired over the years, including Ameritron, Hygain, Cushcraft, Mirage and Vectronics.
MFJ has 150 employees at their Starkville plant.
Collectively, MFJ companies manufacture and sell what I would guess to be more than half of all Amateur Radio accessories on the market.
Not everyone is a fan. MFJ has had its detractors over the years. They have had notable challenges with quality control. It is possible to consider MFJ's purchase of so many other companies as anticompetitive. It is also possible that without MFJ, these companies would have failed.
The positives:
MFJ is one of the only companies to provide PDF copies of user manuals before purchase, complete with schematics in many cases.
MFJ is one of the only companies to provide full parts lists for many of their products with replacement parts available for purchase from the factory.
MFJ has offered an unconditional "No Matter What" one year guarantee on many of their products.
MFJ has an unrivaled scope of products available! They don't just sell one model of amplifier, antenna switch, antenna analyzer, antenna, etc, they have dozens of products in each product catagory. Sure, you could go to their web site, but for a real feel for the size of their offerings thumb through their 90 page 2023 catalog, link below.
MFJ 2023 Catalog:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rr3_YWxUOF0J6JKyHFXS4e8KIbcfgrc1/view?usp=sharing
History of MFJ from the MFJ web site
https://mfjenterprises.com/pages/the-story-of-mfj-enterprises-inc
MFJ Origins Article from swling.com:
https://swling.com/blog/2020/09/mfjs-origins/
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Talk to you tomorrow evening at 7pm on 3640 KHz or as close as we can get.
Warm up with Jim VA3MFO starts at 6:30.
We use the client from netlogger.org to log the net. Confirm our frequency on their web page. Download the client and follow along at home. See who's checked in, and chat in the AIM window between checked in hams!
73,
Kevin - VA3RCA