MFJ is ceasing its on-site production
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I recently attended the funeral of the wife of an Australian Ham ~ 90 who relayed Space Shuttle communications to NASA for astronauts and their families including some sensitive "possible farewell" type calls.
This was the same person who lead me into fun projects reverse engineering the early Navstar GPS packets before they were public, and tapping into Cold War VLF transmissions out of Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt.
Someone who spent their early teens defusing live bombs in England during and post WWII, and present during the Mau Mau rebellion.
Any write ups on this? GNSS reverse engineering seems interesting
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Wong_Sue * was in and out and round about, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Beadell dropped in and taught kids how to use a theodolite, other people of interest did stuff and we all generally submitted notes to archives.
* As you can see, lots of stories with fuzzed details <shrug>
Damn that seems super interesting. I guess it's too sensitive to have a write up?
They had EVERYTHING.
If you’re a ham this is sort of like CDW or NewEgg closing, but they’re #1 by a massive margin and well loved. No one else had the variety of stuff they did as I remember.
I mean... how big is the market for ham radios? I've not really met an enthusiast that wasn't at least 10 years older than I am.
You can do a lot at low cost and without property, but some of the more compelling parts of ham radio are hard to reach.
Other aspects of the hobby aged poorly too. The ham community (and the regulators) were slow to embrace use cases that might have been interesting to younger people in the 21th century - say, mesh networking. Instead, the kids were supposed to follow in the footsteps of the old-timers and get excited about slow-scan TV, RTTY, and collecting QSL postcards.
Frankly, I don't know of any other hobby with a comparable amount of gatekeeping. It sucks because the increasingly idle spectrum will eventually get auctioned off for commercial use.
Which is a tax on anyone who ends up using it. Selling the airwaves was a huge mistake.
I know people feel that way but IMO ham radio is still magical because you can communicate across continents without any dependency on anything or anyone else.
Sure the internet is faster and more convenient, but for that IP packet to reach its destination it depends on a cast of thousands of components across dozens of providers to all be working correctly.
With ham radio, you just need the radio and a generator and the laws of physics to communicate across the globe. That's pretty magical!
There are many cases of overlap. The "upper" pager band is 929-931 MHz. There is a lot of adaptable commercial 900 MHz equipment knocking around. There are also agile transceivers ICs like STM32WL than can tune 150-960 MHz continuous, for example. The lower pager bands are at the lower end of VHF. You can make transceivers at those frequencies from through-hole parts and cheap tools.
The great thing that has emerged recently is low cost RF tools. You can get cheap, hobbyist grade RF instruments for a song today. NanoVNC, TinySA, affordable antenna analyzers and more can do things that cost thousands of dollars only 10 years ago.
Then there is Ham Radio Crash Course, Long Island CW Club (Morse code has made a big comeback), and contesting which when that happens the bands are slammed
I have even sent memes over SSTV or captured imagery from the International Space Station. I have made QSOs with an Astronaut from my backyard with an HT.
Anyways there are lots of things to do. I am in a HOA and my end fed is installed in my attic. No one knows
There’s also flagpole antennas. Oh and I forgot about DMR and DSTAR or PiSpots. Raspberry Pi is big in ham radio
As the hobby evolves, so does the hobbyist.
The FCC's door is as open as always.
Personal computing, and particularly FOSS.
>the hobby just lost its luster. It used to be this magical way to connect with friends and strangers. Now, cell phones and the internet make it a lot less magical.
I surmise personal computing tomorrow will be the ham radio of today. We're already seeing the disillusionment among the masses and particularly the young.
Sure, that interaction could have happened on the internet, but it is highly unlikely to have done so, given how I (and most people) use the internet. And no one is calling random foreign strangers on their phone.
Perhaps radio is no longer “magical,” but it is still serendipitous. When I sit down, I have no idea who or where will be receiving my RF. I have talked to a wider variety of people all over the world with my radio than I ever have with my laptop—at least in terms of real conversation and not just interacting on a reddit post or what have you. And, sure, plenty of QSOs are also just about your rig, your antenna, the weather, etc., but even being marginally curious about others’ lives usually garners some interesting conversation.
These are people with whom I would never have had the chance to converse without the happenstance of the ionosphere. So, I dunno, seems pretty magical to me. Maybe the broader issue is that folks generally aren’t interested in having random encounters and conversations with others.
As far as the gatekeeping aspect, that’s definitely a problem. The number of sad hams out there still bitching about how “FT8 isn’t real radio” is too damn high. But it’s a big hobby, and there are more licensed hams in the US now than there ever have been in terms of raw numbers, and it’s pretty close to an all-time high as a proportion of the population, too. So I think there’s room for optimism about it.
I'm not into communicating with other people. Hacking computers and radios seem to be a lot more interesting.
You don't need a tower or a huge piece of property to get involved with ham radio. I do most of my operation portable, sometimes operating out of a backpack and have plenty of fun with it.
If you want to put up an antenna as a renter you can easily do so on a small freestanding tripod.
I have an HOA, so every time want to get on HF at home I put up the 10m dipole. I stick three 7ft wooden stakes in the ground, tie the dipole to them with paracord, and talk to people all over the world.
That dipole is just 2 pieces of 8 foot wire soldered to a SO-329 connector. It probably cost me $10 at most.
You can get a low powered portable HF digital rig for less than $100. With less than 20W and a homebrewed antenna you could be making contacts all over the world.
If you need more power, you can get a mobile 100W HF rig <https://www.dxengineering.com/search/part-type/mobile-transc...> for a little more than an XBOX. A 100W HF base station for the cost of a mid-range laptop <https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-015268> <https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=71-002065>
Admittedly, I'm currently making contacts all over the world right now on Hacker News. As children of the Internet, radio, at first, seems like a silly, antique hobby when the Internet has connected us together. Maybe it is just me, but there's something really fun and geeky about radio. I've been a maker for decades and I've grown a bit bored of making LED blink. HAM radio has given me a practical reason to get the solder iron out again. I really love building the crappiest equipment out of scraps and see if it'll work.
Parks on the Air is another really fun aspect of the hobby. Almost every weekend since I got my license, I go out to a nearby state or national park. I pack up my FT-991a base station in a cheap harbor freight hard case. I bring a battery, some coax, an EFHW antenna I built. I throw in antenna in a tree and sit in the park and play radio. I find it quite relaxing to get outside and see who I can talk to.
KB9VBR has a nice video what a POTA activation is like. If you're an outdoorsy type or want to be one, POTA is a fun excuse to get outside.
It’s the difference between crossing the ocean in an airliner vs. in a sailboat. The end results are the same, but the methods and skills are wildly different.
Josh of Ham Radio Crash Course did a talk the various things you can do with a technician's license
An "apartment antenna" that can be attached to balcony railing:
* https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-1622
Portable antenna:
The ARRL tried for years to obtain the same protected status for amateur radio antennas and failed. They've since ceased lobbying for this as it is costly. Occasionally one legislator or another tries to get the language passed and it is always shot down.
I can't think of any one thing they make that isn't available elsewhere. Some of their bread and butter tools, like their classic antenna analyzers, are completely out classed by newer alternatives today. For a long time, however, MFJ was the only affordable source for things like that.
One of the niche MFJ products I bought is a 20 meter telescoping vertical antenna element. That's like an old fashioned car radio antenna but 5.2 meters long. Even that is made by competitors today.
Understatement of the century. Mighty Fine Junk -- it's been a looooong time since I've wasted any money on MFJ rubbish. Life is too short.
Other than an older Ameritron amplifier, which may predate the MFJ acquisition, I see nothing with the MFJ logo looking around my "shack". I moved on from MFJ many years ago and sought better alternatives. Some years ago I bought a Rig Expert AA230-ZOOM analyzer that is far more capable, stable, and compact than any of the MFJ analyzers I had used prior. I also have a NanoVNA that I use for 70cm that is beyond the range of the AA230-ZOOM. Other items in the shack are better built and better performing than their MFJ counterparts such as a West Mountain Radio DC power strip and Palstar and LDG tuners.
I am concerned about the fate of Ameritron and Hy-Gain. These two product lines have a strong history that pre-dates their acquisition by MFJ and it would be a shame to see them disappear from the ham radio marketplace.
Edit to add:
Whenever I've had issues with one of their products, they literally walked me through disassembling and testing their products on the phone together -- and the staff there working the phones was knowledgeable, kind, and the type of folks you'd hear in the background at their tables/booths at hamvention and other radio-focused events. This isn't just a loss for everyone who uses MFJ, this is going to be felt amongst retailers as well as folks who are in that community. Their products were built well, tested to work, and rock solid: truly generational gear.
A few years ago, I read about the regrets of dying people, and many of them related to spending more time with their families... That was one of the reasons I decided to close my company last year (after 20 years; I'm 45 now) and start over, working with just a few customers, making less money but having more time. Now, I only work part-time to have the chance to spend more time with my loved ones.
Are they the most reliable? Eh no.. but that’s also half the fun of ham radio… fix it yourself. Now, if I had just purchased a DOA 2kw amplifier maybe not but ;)
Absolutely. But MFJ was definitely in that position.
And sad for all the people in the Starkville area who have had jobs there for so many decades.
They just stopped printing their monthly QST magazine at the start of 2024. It's digital only now.
A Heavy Sad Heart - MFJ Enterprises to cease amateur radio product production
MFJ: A Heavy Sad Heart
It seems like that might help?
(I know nothing about ham radio but insiders seem to recognize MFJ.)
I wonder if their market just dried up.
As I understand it, '73' comes from the landline Morse/news wire reporting tradition.
I have a hard time estimating how this will play out. Ten years from now, where do you believe will the majority of manufacturing happen? Will it be more or less distributed compared to now?
Thank you M.F.J.! you’ve left a legacy of fond memories with this last generation of radio amateurs.
I also had a 986 Differential Tee tuner for a number of years that I replaced with a Palstar AT1500DT differential tee tuner. I routinely had to pull the 986 out and clean and lubricate it. I've had the Palstar about 15 years and have yet to open it up. The Palstar was priced about 50% higher than the MFJ but the quality is an order of magnitude better. With the Palstar I only cried once, as the saying goes.
Clearly it wasn’t profitable enough anymore, and maybe wouldn’t be after moving overseas or something.
(There might not be buyers, the business might not be sustainable, the company space might be built into their home, they might have to sell commercial real estate for medical expenses or to get their estate in order, etc. Or maybe they're preoccupied with personal matters, and not up to investigating alternatives.)
I'd like to see DXE acquire the Hy-Gain and Ameritron lines if possible.
I've not followed this closely to know if Martin wanted to sell everything as a single unit or had entertained offers for the individual brands he's acquired over the years. Hopefully if it was the former he'll now consider the latter.
Ham radio's time has come and gone, but I still treasure the memories of listening to him talk to people all over the world.
MFJ shutting down is likely one of the final nails in the coffin, but I'll be sad to see it go.
Those people all over the world are still there. Every day. The airwaves are full. Yesterday I was handed off between a dozen Italians working contacts in the US.
I have to hand it to European hams. They don't leave anything on the table at all. Some of the gear they fabricate is world class stuff. I just bought this amazingly well made feedline choke from a French ham on Ebay. I've made these myself and know exactly how hard it is to make them that well. RigExpert out of Ukraine is something as well: they just took over the higher end portable analyzer market.
There is a kindly person on YouTube you might watch: KB9VBR. He operates out of US parks. A lot. Vast numbers of contacts for that sort of operation. He sells antennas on EBay as well.
What happens next depends on your interests. The choices are vast and interesting.
Picking up a Technical License or General License exam prep book is a good way to learn a lot of the radio and electronics technology too.
[1]: https://hamstudy.org
Instead, I suggest finding local ham clubs and seeking out experience with different parts of the hobby. Find people who chase DX (long distance contacts) on shortwave. Find the contesters, people who compete to see who can make the most contacts meeting some condition in a given period of time. Find the parks/summits on the air people, who go to parks and summits to set up portable stations and make contacts. Find the fox hunters, people who compete to find hidden radio beacons. Find the people with VHF/UHF rovers, vans with bit directional antennas mounted. Find people who communicate with satellites. Find people who bounce signals off the moon.
If your experience with any of that excites you for more, study for your license and dive in. I'd highly recommend getting your general class license instead of technician. It's not all that much harder to get and it opens up the shortwave bands.
I imagine some kind of numbered, curated list of radio achievements that would be a mini-lesson on gear needed, antennae, frequencies covered, theory and what the goal is.
Or maybe they're more like Scout badges.
Anyway, I have drifted in and out of a fascination with radio. When I drift toward it I often find I am quickly in over my head — or rudderless.
Yes, this is widespread. The ARRL in the US tracks such achievements. A simple example that comes to mind is Worked All States[1]. But that's just one: there are contests, events, records, etc. If you want to put your callsign on a list somewhere there are lots of opportunities.
Just having a callsign in the first place is the start of it. Those are usually assigned by whatever national government you live under. And they typically have grades: Technician, General and Extra in the US, for example.
[1] https://www.arrl.org/AWARDS [2]https://skccgroup.com/ [3] http://naqcc.info/challenges_rules.html
My thing is HF contesting. Scratch building antennas is also a kick.
If you are interested in radio, find a club. They will help you get oriented.
Ham isn't dead, it just looks different than it did for our grandfathers.
I'm writing as an ARRL member that renews every three years. But I spend way more time learning from forums (groups.io, QRZ, blogs, etc.) and YouTube than anything the ARRL is doing.
I communicated with someone 8,000 miles away from me (Midwest US to South Africa) by bouncing radio waves off the ionosphere from an antenna I built myself using as much power as a light bulb.
The hobby is definitely dying, but it still provides some awesome moments. Tons of nerds here would find it time well spent.
Still, you're totally right that in ideal conditions propagation can be astounding.
It was FT8, which is a weak signal data mode. Very often you can make contacts hundreds of miles away using less than 20 watts.
However, I was probably using between 40-100 watts for that contact - you can't get much further apart on earth than we were!
To me this is more a sign that western manufacturing's time has come and gone.
The ham world is buzzing as of late with how cheap, Chinese manufacturers are taking the market by storm from incumbent manufacturers on both sides (US and Japan) of the pacific. It's both grim and bittersweet because the hams admit their quality is good enough while being so much cheaper and easier to acquire.
Source: Dad is ham, overhear conversations of such from his comms and in radio shops; catalogs from HRO and the like are now half Chinese.
I dunno about that. There are more licensed hams today in the US than there ever have been. And as a proportion of the US population, the number of hams is close to an all-time high.
https://www.clearskyinstitute.com/ham/stats/index.html
I also serve as a Volunteer Examiner (ham who helps administer license exams), and the group with which I volunteer administers remote licensing exams to multiple people on a daily basis. So, anecdotally, I do think there are still plenty of folks out there getting into the hobby.
It is still very much alive.
There is a major world wide event called CQ WW dx contest in which on the order of 30,000 hams participate.
There are three morse code events each week, one on each of Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The Wednesday event has four separate one-hour sessions. If you tune in on one of these onto 20 meters, you will a whole mass of signals.
My local club, the North Shore Radio Club gives massive help to the Chicago Marathon, with on the order of 200 hams helping out with emergency traffic. Imagine a crowded event in a major city--the cell network becomes absolutely overloaded. Their help with traffic about medical events has doubtless saved lives.
The advent of the new digital modes invented by Joe Taylor (yes, that one, the Nobel Prize winner) embodied in the program WSJTX is massively active. This is a low-signal mode used on HF, LF and VHF/UHF. It significantly helps moonbounce communication.
Perhaps the most social of events is Field Day in which hams all over North America go to (generally) an outdoor location and set up stations to exercise emergency communications and use emergency power setup. You can check the ARRL web site in June to find one near you.
A recent activity is Parks On The Air where hams go to parks to set up temporary stations and pass out contacts to folks all over the world.
So Ham Radio is far from dead.