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Reviews For: Palstar HF-AUTO

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : Palstar HF-AUTO
Reviews: 106MSRP: $1695. USD
Description:
* 1 Watt to 2500 watts....average, peak, and peak- hold
* Load into a 10:1 SWR from 1.8 to 54 Mhz
* NO CI-V cables required
* Tunes on SSB
* Digital Display...no analog metering
* Remotable... up to 400'!
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.palstar.com/en/hf-auto/
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
64.51064.8
K3MEJ Rating: 2018-03-09
love it! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have had it for over a year. Works great. Just keep up with the firmware and make sure you familiarize yourself with its operation and it will work great.
W2PP Rating: 2018-03-09
Unreliable Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought this about 18 months ago. I have as well the HF Auto Remote box. The tuner was set up remotely at the tower inside a NEMA insulated enclosure. I lost the ability to talk to it and have it talk back to the HF Auto Remote. I sent it in and Paul refused to address this. Instead no matter what I said I got "I work six days a week and I don't want to deal with this"...I offered to pay him for his time, no problem at all, I just needed it fixed, money was not the issue. Instead Paul said "I don't need your money and I'm busy" so that's that. I have a unit that will not talk to the HF Auto Remote and their is no where to turn. I will never do business with Palstar again
Peter


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Earlier 5-star review posted by W2PP on 2015-09-12

I bought the HF auto AND the HFautoR. I have the remote head here on the ham table and the tuner 380 feet away at the antenna tower. I must say its a fantastic tuner. I cannot add to the superlatives already out there. I'll just say the remote ability of this is BEYOND awesome. It will work out to 500 feet away and as I said I have mine at 380 feet. Its like it was right on the table. Just just just fantastic. I will NEVER sell this piece of equipment. Fast, accurate and reliable.
VE3VCV Rating: 2018-01-30
Amazing tuner Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Only been using the Tuner 1 month so far but I am impressed, Quiet and fast operation.
Once you use it a bit it is very fast getting the tune. Very well built. I have been using auto tuners for years and this thing has them all beat.
It is a joy to use and I had it setup in minutes
AK9S Rating: 2017-11-23
Better Than Expected Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
After using the HF-AUTO, I found myself questioning why I had not purchased this fine piece of equipment years earlier. The answer, of course, involves the cost. What I can say is, one usually pays a premium for quality and reliability. The return for spending big money must result in the equipment exceeding performance expectations given the investment.

I love this tuner. I can click on the PTT on my transceiver for a fraction of a second and the tuner will remember the best settings for the frequency I am on and tune. Also, the sound from the tuner is delightful, unlike the loud clanking sound of other tuners such as LDG (which require continuous RF until the tuning cycle is completed.)

In terms of power output, I have run 1.2 KW SSB and 700 W RTTY into the tuner without issue. The only problem experienced is the tuner arcs on 160M when using my short 45-foot vertical antenna, so I am limited to just 375 W on that band. Obviously, the voltage inside the tuner reaches several thousands of volts due to the relatively short antenna length. The manual should discuss cases involving high voltage which can result in potential arcing to minimize surprises.

All in all, I am extremely happy with my purchase.
W2IRT Rating: 2017-11-01
Well-built but some critical flaws Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
First the GOOD. This is an exceptionally well-built tuner that easily handles legal limit.

The BAD, which may not be bad for everybody: Be aware, this tuner will *NOT* read band or frequency data from your transceiver. If you need that function, look elsewhere; I discovered this the hard way. As a contester and DXer, changing tuning solutions on the fly as I QSY up and down a band is mission critical. This unit won't do it without a 3rd party app called HF AUTO APP, which at the time this review is being written, has some problems. Nothing insurmountable, I suspect, but it's got a few glitches that need to be worked out.

The way this tuner works is you have to apply a constant RF carrier, wait about 30 seconds for it to chug its way through L/C solutions until it finds the best one, and memorizes it. Not a problem if you're a casual operator or ragchewer, net operator, etc. You're ready to roll in a minute or less. If you're a contester with a non-resonant antenna, however, this will frustrate the hell out of you, and you may find a manual tuner far better in the heat of battle. But as someone who needs to remote my own station, that's not an option.

I don't care what it costs, If I ever find a tuner that handles legal limit (with headroom), can tune a 10:1 mismatch, and reads frequency data CORRECTLY I will buy it in a heartbeat.
NG7M Rating: 2017-06-04
Top Tier / Quality / Support Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I worked through an upgrade on an earlier version of the HF-AUTO from a purchase from a good fiend of mine. The personal support from Palstar was nothing more than stellar. I actually had a couple of hiccups along the way in returning the tuner for the upgrades to allow for remote operation via software. However here in is the beauty of Palstar. I knew I could work through anything based on the quality of the product and service.

I have now what is basically a new HF-AUTO with all the latest and greatest features. When you open a Palstar product you can see that this is one of those products that exudes commercial quality and beyond. You almost want a window into the internal workings of the tuner with lighting so you can watch it work. Someone cares about the assembly and construction. The tiny details are evident. Palstar is not a 'bottom feeder' in the Amateur Radio market. With this being the case, you need to expect that there will be a price premium that comes along with it. Equipment like this can't be produced and supported for pennies on the dollar. If you complain about the price of an HF-AUTO, then I would suggest that you look elsewhere to one of the lower tier bottom feeding vendors.

After the upgrades and getting the tuner returned, my first real test was actually a portable two county line setup in the 2017 7QP. I operated with K7UT in a multi 2 running QRO as K7UM and on the low bands we used the HF-AUTO. It was flawless and as we ran 1KW plus for the duration of low band operating, it never skipped a beat and we never needed to worry about tuning. We used it with an 80 meter dipole horizontal at 50 feet fed with ladder line and then used a 4:1 balun to unbalanced coax into our operating trailer. At the end of the day, we broke the all time record as K7UM in a county line expedition as a multi 2 and took 1st place in this category.

If you want a quality product with quality support, dig into your pockets and pony up... or save your pennies and get something special like an HF-AUTO from Palstar. And if you have any problems, know that you will get quality support and attention to detail in the end.

Max NG7M
VE3VV Rating: 2017-05-02
Circuit board Problem Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Does what its supposed to do but not Indestructible
After using it successfully on 20,40 & 80 in a cw contest I switched to 1.8 mhz on an antenna I normally use the AT5K in bypass as the swr is low enough> It fried a board almost immediately, I believe I was using the appropriate 15 watts power and the HF Auto read swr =1.7. It was under Warranty by the way.!
Fast repair & shipping, Parts not covered, shipping not covered, no insurance on return box.
Just heard another Ham had same problem and he was sent a free board . Sent mine back and got an Icom 7300, staying away from Palstar

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Earlier 3-star review posted by VE3VV on 2016-06-04

Does what its supposed to do but not Indestructible
After using it successfully on 20,40 & 80 in a cw contest I switched to 1.8 mhz on an antenna I normally use the AT5K in bypass as the swr is low enough> It fried a board almost immediately, I believe I was using the appropriate 15 watts power and the HF Auto read swr =1.7.
Fast repair & shipping, Parts not covered, shipping not covered, no insurance on return box.
Would be nice if a series of dits would cause it to Tune
WO7I Rating: 2017-03-17
GREAT AUTO TUNER Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is simply a great HF Auto Tuner.
Good quality construction with good quality components. A joy to operate. Meets all of my operating requirements. If your thinking of buying one of these tuners I doubt that you will be disappointed.
The folks at Palstar have been very good to work with.
I am a very happy customer, WO7I
K9GS Rating: 2017-03-09
A Weatherized Remote Version should be next Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I sure wish Palstar would come out with an outside weatherized version. It is mentioned in the owners manual but e-mails regarding this to Palstar have gone unanswered.

There is a real need for a reliable high-power remote tuner.
NC3Z Rating: 2017-02-22
Great tuner but even better customer support Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I bought mine used on the swap forum. Unfortunately it did was not "works 100%" as it had severe issues when I got it.

After extensive troubleshooting Palstar said send it in. Well after a week I received a call from Palstar telling me that they had to replace 3 circuit boards! Total cost $99, Wow! Palstar surmised the previous owner may have tried to initiate tuning under high power.

But in the several months since I got it back it has been working great. Tunes My inverted L's across the entire bands they are cut for (160, 80 and 40). Great tuner.