Many thanks to a number of readers who’ve sent me the following email announcement (that I unfortunately) also received today from Martin Jue at MFJ Enterprises:
Heavy Sad Heart
Dear Fellow Hams and Friends,
April 25, 2024
Dear Fellow Hams and Friends,
It is with a sad heart as I write this letter.
As many of you have heard by now, MFJ is ceasing its on-site production in Starkville, Mississippi on May 17, 2024. This is also the same for our sister companies’ Ameritron, Hygain, Cushcraft, Mirage and Vectronics.
Times have changed since I started this business 52 years ago. Our product line grew and grew and prospered. Covid changed everything in businesses including ours. It was the hardest hit that we have ever had and we never fully recovered.
I turned 80 this year. I had never really considered retirement but life is so short and my time with my family is so precious.
I want to thank all of our employees who have helped build this company with me over the years. We have many employees who have made MFJ their career for 10, 20, 30, 40 and more years.
We are going to continue to sell MFJ products past May 17, 2024. We have a lot of stock on hand. We will continue to offer repair service work for out-of-warranty and in-warranty units for the foreseeable future.
Finally, a special thanks to all of our customers and our dealers who have made MFJ a worldwide name and a profitable business for so many years. You all are so much appreciated.
Sincerely Yours, 73s
Martin F. Jue, K5FLU
Will MFJ continue production in China? Stay tuned for more info…
It was very sad to hear that MFJ is closing. I got into ham radio in the late 80’s to explore packet radio.. My fondest memory of my first Hamvention was buying the new MFJ-1278 multimode TNC. Quite a big deal back then to a broke college student! It worked great and I spent countless hours on the air using it.
Wishing the absolute best to Martin in his upcoming retirement!
David Davison
KB8KEF
Maybe MFJ will be purchased by some of the employees and do business under a different name ? All Electronics was purchased by some of the employees and became aretronics . To cut labor costs more DIY kits will become available which helps interested young folk develop additional skill sets. Happy and healthy retirement to Martin.
Martin is a very nice gentleman and I was lucky to meet him on several occasions. He has done much for our hobby as well as providing employment for many people.
Unfortunately it has become difficult to maintain competitive manufacturing in the U.S. As hard as it already was covid made things much worse. It became extremely difficult to get and keep workers. Companies were directly impacted by their lack of workers and indirectly by their vendors having the same labor issues.
It became harder and harder to meet production schedules to fill orders. The cost and leadtimes for everything increased dramatically. Components, materials, outside processes, freight, overhead and, of course, labor costs soared. Combine that with a long list of products that sell in low to moderate volumes and you have a manufacturing nightmare.
Martin and MFJ have been at the heart of Amateur Radio and now I wish Martin a Long and Happy Retirement spent with his friends and family.
73 Martin !
Jim WB4ILP
I still have excellent success with their 1026 noise canceling signal enhancer and their 959C antenna tuner preamp. My 784B tunable dsp noise filer had a bad solder joint I diagnosed but then worked a treat also. I was shocked to see the cost of the 1026 now north of $400, such is the cost of small run domestic assembly I guess. The good thing is they published the circuits in the manuals so many of us can service them if necessary.
While it must have been a production nightmare to schedule jobs to make the many hundreds of line items that MFJ produced, I’m grateful for their products. I still use their wonderful antenna analyzer and have one of the very old “grey box” CW audio filters that still works .
I sold off my “MFJ Stack” of small QRP rigs that was always in the inside cover of QST (Keyer, power supply, VFO , transmitter, audio filter, etc….)
Best to you Mr MFJ!
Thanks Martin & team,
for all of your products and hard work in engineering and support. I’ve loved them all. Especially MFJ. Really sad situation for the ham future.
Hope there will be a human team in the spirit to suceed the area of all products for the future.
A ham radio future without the products ?
I could not believe that this is possible.
No one at earth to be the right person suceeding the business?
73 de Uli DL4GG
I’ve been acquainted with Martin for many years. I and almost my whole family have been customers of his. I always enjoyed the talks he gave in Atlanta, some of which are on you-tube. I owned, fixed, traded and sold most of the items MFJ ever produced or sold. Almost all their equipment is easy to understand, use and fix if needed. I’ve also modified many of their items also. Laurin Cavender WB4IVG Tallapoosa Ga.
The saddest part to me is Hygain, Cushcraft, and Ameritron leaving the industry. They are the real Icons in Ham Radio. Thanks to all of the MFJ employees I have dealt with since 1981.
Very sad news. MFJ was our nice sponsor for the SWL Contest 2023 with two very nice gifts. I hope someone will buy the rights ( if this is possible ) to continue to build all this équipment for SWL, Ham radio operators, CB radio opérators, etc. I organise again a contest but no sponsors for 2024. Thank you and 73 de Frank SWL F14368 near Paris France
I still have various beige box items from his early days and various manual antenna tuners.
I would expect DX Engineering to pick up the Hygain and Cushcraft antenna lines
Prices have gone up, parts harder to obtain, sales down and stuff made in China having logistic issues
Sadly, retailers and customers will be stuck as hams shy away from buying anything from them now except at rock bottom prices
Ham Radio was MFJ and Martin did a lot for the hobby and he can now retire and enjoy life and not worry about having a catalogue of 1000 products
Drake, Ten-Tec, Heathkit and now MFJ
A lot of mom and pop retailers also were shuttered over the years
I used to enjoy shopping at the ham store in Minneapolis and the one in Sunnyvale
Remember Universal Radio?
It seems inevitable that a generation of these companies has come to the end. Unfortunately, the industry is no longer expanding, and perhaps a sale was not an option. No buyers might be out there and willing to take on such a wide range of products and the support that would go with it. MFJ absorbed so many other brands in the past decades and who would want so many low volume products?
Well nuts.
I have found several piece of MFJ gear to be excellent performers, particularly the 1886 loop antenna.
Cheers, Jock
Referred to as “Mighty Fine Junk”, I don’t know of any Hams that hasn’t bought something from them, in addition to the other companies they have purchased.
I am saddened, but I think I have everything that I need from them now that I am long retired.
I am kind of shocked no one purchased them. That’s business.
I still have MFJ Tuners, a CW Keyboard, a CW Filter, a Mobile antenna and SWR/Power Meters… and stuff that died. I have owned and own many HF, VHF and UHF antennas and Mirage Amplifiers.
I’d say it’s a dark day.
The only stuff that I bought was a couple of books from the 2004 local hamfest and also got some free manuals from them in the past, and also a prize such as the dual UTC clock, and some coffee mug that end up broke back in the day. The rest of the other stuff, I wanted to order one of those AM Transmitter kits, but they kept telling me it was out of stock and it would take them weeks to get it back in stock. I wish they would continue staying in business for current and future generations to come, and also offer some of their active antennas and accessories in a assemble and kit format such as the Vectronics Active Antenna kit and the MFJ-956 LW-MW-SW antenna preselector. Still, I want to get a chance to build one of those short wave regenerative radio receiver kits.
Adam,
MFJ’s website shows they still have the MFJ 8100 in stock.
In fact they still offer the Vectronics clone (same rx) and
for just $20 extra you can get the wired version.
It’s not hard to build,about 2-3 hours if you take your time.
But for only $20 more,why not get the wired version?
After all,it’s only money.??
That’s sad for us and the workers but good for Martin.
I still have my mfj 1278 packet modem that I got many years ago. Such fond memories.
Hopefully someone may want to take over and continue the range.
All the best Martin, thanks for giving us toys.
For years I always stopped to talk to Martin at the mfj booth. I rember once when we were talking I entioned that Iwasavig aprobem with the powerjac on one of my MFJ DEVICES. He pointed tone of his staff and he said, He will give you the solution before you leave, and he did. Alvin
I’m surprised he chose to close the business, rather than sell it. It’s a bit retro for today, but many hams remember his equipment very well. I owned several different xcvrs and antenna tuners that I used for many years. I didn’t get into the digital dials and more advanced rigs until the late ‘90s with Elecraft. Before that I was strictly Heathkit until they folded. His company will be missed.
“I’m surprised he chose to close the business, rather than sell it.” me too i am very surprise. I think if someone buy rights to build these equipment they unfortunatly will search for a place in Asian where salarys are not to high. You can see now SW receiver are all made in China. Exeptept the very expenvive ICOM who are very nice and i think made in Japan ? I am french iand its realy hard to have MADE IN FRANCE because a lot of cotisations for sociale security, etc. Like 40 US Dollars for 1 hour of work to pay for the boss…
That is very sad news …. Getting close to retirement, & was hoping to spend a lot of time renewing my association with Ham Radio …. Now maybe it’s not going to happen ?
Another huge loss after news about Wellbrook, and Telford closing. Time as a changing. I was never a huge fan of MFJ as I thought their stuff was just OK, but a few units were very good, especially in noise reduction and antenna equipment
So sad to hear.
Like you I always thought their stuff was OK,satisfactory,etc.
not necessarily great but an awful lot of ham equipment was
made only by them,like the excellent MFJ-8100 regen receiver and other
things.
I’ve told Thomas for years the “grand old companies” have been going away
and they were one of the last.
Sure am glad I went ahead and got a scanner beam from them…if anyone
reading this is thinking about one of their products,now is the time to
proceed with the project.
This is so sad but not totally surprising. So many things that we have consideried institutions are falling in our present world, I wish them the very best of health and prosperity in the coming years!