Hi Steve!

WOW, that was gnarly (as we say here in LA)!  Indeed, you previously
mentioned that silly jumper.  Well, I figured it would likely be there, and
that I would open up the 998 only if I had to.  Surprise surprise: I (we)
had to ; )

That jumper is like 1/4 the size of a pea.  There are no instructions on it
anywhere - the manual, the Internet, nothing.  Thank God my Elmer (Rick,
N6IET) is *so* techy.  He found it, determined it was in fact not "jumped"
and fixed it.  It is really weird: it is a tiny square with two micro holes
in it, and it seats onto two tiny winy prongs on some circuit board thereby
"jumping" it.  Whoever had this 998 before me was a full-on techy too
because even though he "unjumped" it (for his own good reasons I am sure) he
had the good technical practice to leave it on one of these two tiny winy
prongs.

Having properly set the jumper and buttoned up the 998, it now works great.
What a nice tuner.  BTW, you are right - it is *really* loud as it churns
away.  So, it is all good now.  Rick even ran the "Relay test" on the 998.
I am so lucky!  Oh, yes, it now beeps when I turn on the rig, which it did
not do before.

We did not get to the ALS-1306 today.  That will be Saturday's project.
About the amp enable jacks, well, it seems that that function is handled by
the interface cables; which have keying operations - or something like that.
That said, I am not opposed to using them.  We still looking at this issue.
More on this later.

Finally, there is one odd thing happening with the 998 only in the frequency
range ~29.5 - 29.7 MHZ.  it kind of seems to have trouble figuring out how
to tune.  Rick is going to help me explain this more technically in a
separate email.

This was awesome!  Thanks so much for your help.  Without this kind of help,
I would be lost.  Standby for all the drama come Saturday when we set up the
amp!

73,
Richard KK6MRH

-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Steve Forst
Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2016 1:53 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Initial Questions on MFJ-998 Operations

Richard,

Glad you have help on site.   I had mentioned the jumper a while back 
just in case, and glad you have it figured out.

Be sure the tuner is turned on first. Then turn on the radio and you will
hear a beep.  That means the tuner and radio see each other.  No beep, no
interface between the 2 units.

I would strongly suggest that you use the amp enable jacks on the back of
the tuner, especially with a solid state amp.  These 2 jacks(input and
output) will break the keying line in the event of high swr. 
Default swr setting is 2.0 and if the tuner sees a swr higher than that, it
will trip a relay in the tuner and unkey the amp.  Tune to a lower swr, and
the relay in the tuner will reengage, and the amp will key. 
It's a nice bit of extra protection for an expensive amp.   Just run the 
keying line from the radio (or amp buffer if used) to the tuner, and from
the tuner to the key jack on the amp.

Good luck, Steve KW3A

On 1/7/2016 4:30 PM, Richard B. McDonald wrote:
> Hi Steve!
>
> OMG, what a nightmare!  Fortunately, my Elmer is helping me with all 
> this today (sighted, 40 total ham, Extra, Motorola engineer, etc.).
> Following is where we are at:
>
> First, because the interface did not seem to be working correctly 
> after confirming correct cable connections and the rig selection in 
> the 998 setup menu, we removed the 998 cover.  Lo and behold, the 
> "Jumper 1" was there but not connected; as is needed for my TS-2000.
> We connected it.
>
> Next, we noticed that the 998 has been modified.  The wire antenna 
> binding post has been removed.  This is probably a good thing, though.  
> Also, there was a wire connected to the amp enable in jack which has 
> been disconnected. There seems to be a fair amount of work done on 
> this 998.  For now, we're only worrying about the Jumper 1 issue.
>
> Last, part of what I am doing today is also setting up an Ameritron
> ALS-1306 amp.  I have the interface cable for it to my rig.  The 998 
> manual is not clear if it is necessary to use the amp enable phono 
> cables.  Our present thinking is that it does not need this phono 
> cabling .
>
> So much for plug and play.  Any light you can shed on all this would 
> be great!
>
> 73, Richard KK6MRH
>
> -----Original Message----- From: For blind ham radio operators 
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Steve Forst Sent:
> Thursday, January 07, 2016 10:55 AM To:
> [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Initial Questions on
> MFJ-998 Operations
>
> Richard,
>
> I assume you have the interface cable connected and have set the
> interface menu.   While there is a tune/bypass button on the tuner
> (top row, far right), you don't use it while interfaced to the radio.
>
> With the radio interfaced correctly, use the "tune" button on the 
> radio. Do a long  press on the  "tune" button of the radio and the
> tuner will tune.   Very loud clacking sound, much louder than the
> clacking the internal tuner makes.   When it finds a match and stops
> tuning, you will hear a short beep.    A short press of the tune
> button on the radio will Put the tuner into bypass.   You will hear a
> beep and (usually) a single clunk from the tuner as the relays unlatch 
> (or whatever is going on inside the tuner).
>
> Top row, far left button  of the tuner is for ant 1 /ant 2 selection. 
> Press to toggle between the 2 antenna ports on the tuner:
> 1 beep for ant 1, 2 beeps for ant 2.
>
> The ant 1 and single wire post on the back of the tuner are
> connected together inside the tuner.   You  use one or the other, you
> can't have a coax connected to ant 1 and a wire connected to the
> single wire terminal at the same time.   The single wire terminal
> will be hot with RF if you are transmitting on coax ant 1.  Don't 
> reach back there while transmitting.
>
> The LC setting referred to is the inductance / capacitance  values 
> that the tuner has chosen when you do a tune.  You can tweak manually 
> if needed with the C up and down and L up and down buttons.
>
> 73, good luck, if you smell smoke, run. Steve KW3A
>
> On 1/7/2016 1:07 PM, Richard B. McDonald wrote:
>> Hi!
>>
>>
>>
>> I have the following two initial questions as I begin to setup my
>> MFJ-998:
>>
>>
>>
>> 1( How do I toggle between a) bypass mode and b) not bypassed mode? I 
>> read in the manual that the 998 powers-on in bypass mode.
>> The manual also says Press [TUNE] quickly (less than 0.5 second) to 
>> bypass the tuner (one beep indicates bypass mode), and that a second 
>> quick press toggles the tuner back to its last L/C setting (indicated 
>> with two beeps).  When I press the [Tune] button once, indeed I hear 
>> one beep.  However, when I press [Tune] again, I do not hear two 
>> beeps but instead only hear one beep.  What is the "L/C setting"? 
>> Does that mean it is no longer in bypass mode?
>>
>>
>>
>> 2) The manual says that a single-wire antenna is by default "Antenna 
>> 1."  I do not use a single-wire antenna, but instead use a coax-fed 
>> antenna.  I have that coax connected to the 998's SO-239 "Antenna 1" 
>> connection, and nothing connected to the 998's single-wire binding 
>> post.  Does this make the SO-239 "Antenna 1"
>> the default "Antenna1" and not the single-wire antenna, or is there 
>> more I need to do to make it so?
>>
>>
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> Richard KK6MRH
>>
>