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MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

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Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#11

Post by defrost »

There's a lot of old Hams retiring out of the game in their 80s and 90s now.

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.

Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#12

Post by rmason »

MBCook wrote: post #3
silisili wrote: post #2

For anyone confused like I was, this isn't about mailchimp shutting down, but rather a company named MFJ, which apparently makes amateur radio gear.

TONS of it. Everything you could need. Need a key for Morse code? A Morse code trainer? An antenna tuner? Antenna? Power supply? Test equipment? They had EVERYTHING. https://mfjenterprises.com/ 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'm a ham and I've used some of their products over the years. It is indeed a sad day. I am surprised that someone didn't want to buy them. It is a niche but a handful of small companies (and divisions of large ones) do quite well servicing the amateur radio market.

Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#14

Post by MBCook »

FpUser wrote: post #6

It seems as the decision of the owner. He's got old and wants to spend time with the family. Would not it be worth to try to transfer to the workers in exchange for some share of profits?

They’re shutting down their factories, so they’d have to setup new ones elsewhere. That would have costs too.

Clearly it wasn’t profitable enough anymore, and maybe wouldn’t be after moving overseas or something.

Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#15

Post by alostpuppy »

topspin wrote: post #8
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #4

I'm not a Ham, but my grandfather (W8IGY) was, and I credit him for letting me know a larger, more technical community existed "out there" than what was apparent from the small rural town I grew up in the pre-internet days. 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…

> 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. 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…

How does one get started?

Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#16

Post by neilv »

FpUser wrote: post #6

It seems as the decision of the owner. He's got old and wants to spend time with the family. Would not it be worth to try to transfer to the workers in exchange for some share of profits?

Yeah, the letter didn't say whether they'd tried to sell the business, or find other management for it. That's definitely a question that comes to mind.

(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.)

Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#17

Post by skord »

FpUser wrote: post #6

It seems as the decision of the owner. He's got old and wants to spend time with the family. Would not it be worth to try to transfer to the workers in exchange for some share of profits?

It’s ham radio. It’s very probable that they were already on the brink of failing considering what they made and where they made it. The manufacturing probably isn’t profitable and like most things ham, it was a labor of love.

Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#18

Post by topspin »

alostpuppy wrote: post #15
topspin wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. 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…

How does one get started?

It's different for everyone. For me, ten years ago, I got interested in quadcopters back when making them yourself was the norm. There is a lot of radio involved, especially at long range. That sent me down the rabbit hole.

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.

Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#19

Post by jonifico »

It's a bit sad to make such a decision when you're almost 80. Realizing the importance of time with your family so late gives you so little time.

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.

Re: MFJ is ceasing its on-site production

#20

Post by cogman10 »

rmason wrote: post #12
MBCook wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TONS of it. Everything you could need. Need a key for Morse code? A Morse code trainer? An antenna tuner? Antenna? Power supply? Test equipment? They had EVERYTHING. https://mfjenterprises.com/ 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'm a ham and I've used some of their products over the years. It is indeed a sad day. I am surprised that someone didn't want to buy them. It is a niche but a handful of small companies (and divisions of large ones) do quite well servicing the amateur radio market.

> I am surprised that someone didn't want to buy them.

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.

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