So is it a bargain for the price? Possibly. I use it to get things "into the ballpark" then switch to the VNA if possible. Even with the fine adjustment it is difficult to set the frequency. The oscillator drifts and will not stay on frequency making it difficult to tune narrow band antennas. Measured inductors and capacitors are off from my VNA and LC Meter II/B, but Autek does have warnings about accuracy for components. When the VNA shows a load to be 50 ohms and my resistance swr bridge says I'm right on, the RF-1 will show 54 ohms, 60 feet up it probably will get a beam close enough. The Autek is probably adequate to tune up a dipole if you use an antenna tuner. I built a N2PK-VNA in 2005 thus was able to compare the Autek to an accurate instrument. This is shoddy work on the part of Autek. I soldered them all and the meter has worked since. It would work intermittently after that.Įventually I read these reviews about unsoldered connections, and sure enough there were a bunch in my RF-1. It worked for me for a few days then failed. They returned it saying it worked fine and had replaced a connector. I sent it to Autek and paid $31 for a repair.
![autek va1 calibration autek va1 calibration](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81KkzhaJjCL._AC_SL1500_.jpg)
I don't think it's fair to slate AUTEK in this way and I have no complaints about either the build quality or functionality of their RF-1 analyser. It's sad that because one or two individuals open up a product for a look, and decide for all the wrong reasons that the soldering is crap, that others happily jump on the bandwagon to perpetuate the nonsense being talked, without taking the time and effort to try to understand for themselves why a few of the PCB pads don't have solder on them. OK, it lacks the two analogue meters of the MFJ and doesn't cover VHF, but it is a fine tool for working on HF antennas and for testing co-ax and resonating traps. For all I know, it could even be third hand, yet it works at least as well as my MFJ259B ever did. Why waste time and solder on soldering stuff that doesn't need to be soldered? It would only add to the manufacturing cost. Having read the reviews here, many of which slate the RF-1 for unsoldered joints and poor workmanship, I have to say that some of the reviewers obviously don't seem to understand that most of the 'unsoldered joints' issue is down to 4 pin switches which only need two pins to be soldered to function. I bought mine second-hand to replace my MFJ-259B which got accidentally fried. I must have spent more time fixing this thing than it would have taken to assemble it in the first place. Put it back in the drawer, until the next time. Re-assembled, checked with test load, all OK. Reseating the Molex connector that is used to join the two PCB's seem to fix the flickering display. Noticed that one of the tags on the variable capacitor had become detached from the PCB, so resoldered that too.
![autek va1 calibration autek va1 calibration](https://data2.manualslib.com/first-image/i16/80/7963/796213/autek-research-qf-1a.jpg)
Opened it up resoldered the PCB where the wires from the SO239 connect. Took it back inside and tried it with a 50 Ohm test load.
![autek va1 calibration autek va1 calibration](https://docplayer.net/docs-images/42/10833829/images/page_12.jpg)
But I couldn't get an SWR reading of lees than about 4:1.
![autek va1 calibration autek va1 calibration](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2GyAG0WCzQQ/maxresdefault.jpg)
Gently squeezing the case got the display back for long enough for me to find the resonant frequency. Got outside connected it up to the antenna, and the display started flickering. Popped in a new battery and it all powered up OK. But I know it was working the last time I used it about two years ago. It had been put away for some time, as I had got fed up with having to keep fixing it. So rather than dragging the AIM and laptop outside, I dug out the Autek. I had a quick antenna job to perform whilst dodging rain showers.