Surecom SW-102 vs. MFJ-842

[WRXB215]

I'm planning on buying a meter soon and believe I have it narrowed down to these two.

• Surecom SW-102 (57.99 on Amazon)
• MFJ-842 (82.99 on Amazon)

My two questions are:

1. Is the MFJ worth the extra cost?
2. Is there another meter in this general price range I should look at?

Thanks for the help.

73

[OffRoaderX]

"worth" is a subjective term.
If all you are going to do is check an antenna once in a while, then the SW-102 is perfectly fine.. It's not perfect, its not the best in the world, but it only costs $60, and it is more than plenty good-enough for most normal people.

I have read that the MFJ *might* be a *little* more accurate, sometimes, but again, for most normal people the SW102 is perfectly accurate enough.

Whether that slight, minor bit of possible tiny extra accuracy is worth an extra $22.. only you can decide.

The SW102, in my not very humble opinion is also much easier to use and read, so many people prefer it for that reason alone...
 
BEWARE of "some people" that love to spend other people's money and will decree that the SW102 is "cheap chinese junk!!!1" - even though it works just fine for hundreds of thousands of normal people.. They should be completely ignored.. and laughed at... 

[SteveShannon]

Are you looking for something that is portable and can fit into a go bag or a desktop meter?

Will you be wanting to use it for ham radio HF frequencies also or strictly VHF/UHF?

Is the accuracy of the watt meter important?  That’s where people on this forum have seen issues with the SW-102.

Would an antenna analyzer be more useful to you?

Some of the MFJ SWR/wattmeters are relabeled Nissei. That’s actually good because MFJ manufactured devices that I have replaced parts on are disappointing in the way they fail to clean up their PCBs after soldering. My MFJ-884 says Nissei on the PCB and the quality looks good. 
But for a portable meter, I would prefer a digital one. I would look at a Nissei FS-50. 

[WRYZ926]

The Surecom SW-102 will do what most people need as far as checking SWR and power output.

I have a Surecom SW102, a NanoVNA, and a Comet antenna analyzer. I normally grab the Surecom for a quick SWR check or power output check. The Comet CA500 gets used when I need to fine tune an antenna. I'm still figuring out the NanaVNA.

 

[WRXB215]

@OffRoaderX, @Sshannon, @WRYZ926
Thank you all for your replies. This has helped me to think this through a little better.

@Sshannon I do want to get into HF some day but it will probably be a while before I do so for now it will just be VHF/UHF.

I think I will stick with the Surecom SW-102 and save a little money. I'm sure I'm going to have to buy some adapters and a dummy load anyway.

73

[WRYZ926]

1 minute ago, WRXB215 said:

@OffRoaderX, @Sshannon, @WRYZ926
Thank you all for your replies. This has helped me to think this through a little better.

@Sshannon I do want to get into HF some day but it will probably be a while before I do so for now it will just be VHF/UHF.

I think I will stick with the Surecom SW-102 and save a little money. I'm sure I'm going to have to buy some adapters and a dummy load anyway.

73

Good choice. A good antenna analyzer really isn't needed for VHF/UHF unless you are building your own antennas from scratch. Analyzers definitely come in handy when making or assembling HF antennas.