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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
N4EEB Rating: 2016-12-25
The Best Antenna Tuner I've Ever Owned Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I've been using the HF AUTO for 6 months. I use a non-resonant 110 ft. dipole up 40 ft. to cover 80-10 meters. I run 10 feet of LMR600 coax to a 1:1 balun, and 97 ft. of 300-ohm line to the dipole. All I have to do is give the HF Auto a few watts of power for a moment or two, and it presets itself pretty darn close. Another few watts for another few moments and I have under 1.5:1 SWR on all bands with 1.5KW output. To watch this thing work is truly amazing. Well built, easy to use, and darn sexy to look at if I do say myself. Not one hint of a problem since I turned it on. I am so pleased with my purchase.
NJ0F Rating: 2016-11-20
Great auto tuner. Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I am not a big fan of using antenna tuners as I believe antennas should be resonant where you want to use them, however, there are times where a tuner is needed, so I decided to buy the HF-Auto. I did some tests yesterday and after putting the tuner through some challenging loads to tune, I was amazed how well this unit really works. Quality and workmanship looks great too. I am happy with my purchase.
KB6HRT Rating: 2016-09-28
2nd HF-AUTO Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Brought a second HF-AUTO the first part of this year, namely because I need two tuners and lots of switching at this QTH for the antenna systems I have an the 3 output connectors is a real plus at this station, the new HF-AUTO has worked the same as the first HF-AUTO I brought in 2013 EXCELLENT, have 3 Plaster tuners
all have always worked the way a tuner should, never a problem, The new tuner is rated for 1800w the first one is rated for 1500w but have never put over 1200w in either one, very very happy with both HF-AUTO tuners, there first class tuners, in my book!..............kb6hrt
PY7DJ Rating: 2016-09-27
perfect tunning Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
i know a lot of manual tunners on the market .. from yaesu, mfj, kenwood and palstar .. and a lot of automatic tunners ... from LDG, icom, yaesu .. no one can be compared with PALSTAR HF-AUTO ..

This tunner is perfect, im done a complete tunning on all frequecy with short spaces and the tunner has memorize all tune points on memory .. now im jump to any band or freq and the tuner come together with only one single tone to read a frequency ...

no cable from radio is needed and i like that!!

Its a dream
N6UG Rating: 2016-09-11
Great tuner Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I've been using my HF-AUTO for less than a week and here is my initial impression.

It will tune my Doublet antenna across all bands. My previous tuner could not tune very low impedance points, 6 ohms!

It's easy to tune. Once it stores a tune setting for a freq. all it takes is a split second touch of my radio tune button. The tuner makes the correct adjustments in a few seconds.

So far, this was definitely a good buy for me.

Buying direct from Palstar was great! Very friendly, easy and fast!
NM6E Rating: 2016-07-23
Seamless Integration! Hands Off Auto-Tuner Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I acquired the Palstar HF-AUTO in late October 2015 in anticipation of my new, higher power amp, the SPE Expert-2K-FA. Prior to the Palstar HF-AUTO I was using an Elecraft KAT-500 with my ACOM 1011 600 watt amp. The KAT500 worked fine but I need a bit robustness with the added power (typically was running 500-600 watts with the ACOM/KAT500 combo.

Setup was relatively easy and I did the "band segment learning" in manual mode to assist it when jumping bands for a a perceived 'faster tuning'..

My antenna situation is stagnant compliments of my HOA.. I have a Zero-Five 30' Flag Pole for 80-6m. The HF-AUTO tunes all bands I have with my "flag pole" without ease. Tuning can take 1-4 seconds depending on whether I am jumping from 6m to 80m which is not typical.. I contest more so my band changes are more sequential (15 to 20, to 40 to 80 etc) so the adjustments are incremental and the time required to retune is 1-2 seconds. Again, my antenna is the key "dampener/issue" in finding that sweet spot but i did program memories to facilitate the entire process.

The tuner works great and I am happy I got it and compared to the KAT500, it is much quieter/smoother and no clacking sounds... The motors are much easier to listen to.

My setup works great as I wanted as much of an automated/seamless station knowing my stealth antenna will not change unless we move which is not in the future.

I've never done a CPU upgrade so I think I am 1 rev back...

The only button I need to press is to is turn it on and that's it. I drive the Expert 2K-FA amp with a Yaesu FTDX5000 and that is permanently set to 50w drive to the amp (controlled via the ALC to the amp).. So a simple dah or two of the CW paddle gets it tuned on frequency.

I am planning on installing a stealth Butternut vertical for 160/80/40 for the coming winter in the back yard to help more with the 160/80 bands in conjunction with the HF-AUTO to extend my BW.

Overall I love the HF-AUTO, it's "built like a tank" no issues, quality is fantastic and I normally run either 500 to 1KW and very few times at 1.5KW as there's no need between 1KW and the added possible RFI nuisance.

I power it up with a left over Astron 20 amp switching power supply which is an overkill..

Would I buy it again, yes, given my antenna options but if I was able to use tunable antennas for my primary bands, I would use the built-in tuner in the SPE Expert 2K-FA amp.
G8ITB Rating: 2016-07-09
Excellent Item! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
My station consists of: Icom IC-7100, Palstar HF-AUTO, 132 ft long, 300 ohm fed doublet at 42 ft agl via a Balun Designs item to the ATU. (& various ancillaries).

I also own a Palstar AT-1KP (slightly modified - see my review) which was replaced by the HF-AUTO a few months ago. The HF-AUTO was quite simple to set-up at start-up and runs without any problems. I have matched it on all bands from 160 to 6 metres at various points within the bands to both check it's functions and memory 'bins'. Construction is solid and the sound of stepper motors is a bit strange at first! The ability to change bands/frequencies quickly is a revelation - I've always used a manual ATU (except when /P or /M).
I have yet to upgrade the unit to the very latest firmware - so I cannot comment on either the procedure or results. However I would think that a USB interface rather than the RS-232 could be a standard for amateur radio accessories these days! (Palstar - take note!!). The 3-pin Foster plug for power is a bit odd; and the manual could have a better picture of the power plug connections; i.e. a real picture of the wiring!
So far; no problems! I was quite happy with the Palstar AT-1KP (see my review re the only problem) and hope that the underwhelming use I am putting the HF Auto thorough will not reveal any problems.
The only downside is that I still have to provide a low power constant carrier to initiate auto-tune! But this only takes a few seconds! Some sort of interface to modern rigs to allow use of the rig's tune button/frequency & band follow; etc. would be a positive step. (Listening Palstar!).
If I come across any issues I will either review this review (?) or post a newer one.
Richard G8ITB.
WA0HHX Rating: 2016-05-17
Excellent results Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Gave up on the Alpha 4040. After reading about this tuner and then the almost universally good reviews I purchased it direct from PalStar. I have had it in line for a couple of months. I endorse all the other 5/5 reviews that you read here. It was very easy to set up and provides a very quick and accurate match. I use it with a 5 band 4 element quad. Produces quick matches and almost instant tuning. The watts and frequency readout are quite close (but do not always 100% match the readings on my watt meters and/or vfo readout on my TS-990). Even so they are within 50-100 watts on the kw+ high end and a few kc on frequency. But that's not what I bought it for. Difficult to imagine that you could find a better auto tuner at the price (or any price!). I wonder if maybe Alpha figured that out as well and I have several alpha amps and the new alpha wattmeter. All great products. No disgrace in being beaten to the punch on the tuner and recognizing it. Highly recommended.
WA5WA Rating: 2016-05-07
The Best Auto Ant. Tuner Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I just bought the 2nd Palstar HF-tuner for my Kenwood radio, it Fast (less than 4 seconds to tune for the most bands), nice design and has a watt meter. Highly recommend to have this Auto tuner.
K0WA Rating: 2016-04-30
Very Impressed Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have had the unit for less than a week, but I have been operating quite a bit. I am very impressed with the unit. Fits well into the shack and works very well. Was able to match all my antennas including my so-called Inverted-L which is more of a sagging Inverted-L. The unit is very quiet and I was expecting more "tuning" noise from the stepper motors. Setup easy. Right out of the box with no changes and it started to work like advertised. I am replacing a AT2K tuner which replaced a CV1500. I have had Palstar tuners for a long time. The unit is not cheap, but it does what is advertised and so far it seems to do it well. It is a big box and more long that it is wide. It is easy to learn and has all the features one would want in a tuner. The HF-Auto does require a 12 volts supply that can handle about 5 amps when tuning. I have used the tuner with my AL-82 at 1200 watts output and had no issues at all. Tuning time is acceptable, a lot faster than what I could do manually. I purchase the unit direct from Palstar after calling them with a question. They discounted the price to me and I then made the purchase. Shipping was quick. Very good service, So, far it is a keeper. I will check back later after using it for several months.