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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
G3OZN Rating: 2016-04-15
JUST THE BEST! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Just upgraded from the 1500CV and WOW what an addition to the station, can not fault the unit in any way, it does EXACTLY as their blurb says. I tunes my 211ft LW on 160 80 & 40 and " cleans" up the Steppir 32ft vertical and 3 ele Yagi at 60ft. One observation (not a criticism!) the handbook does not seem to sufficiently describe the memory storage and recall, might be me! I have tried the Yahoo site on this unit but ahem "certain ladies adverts " come up and far to long in the tooth to be of any use to me!If anyone cares to send me a "dummies" guide or direct to a suitable write up I would appreciate it.
NY1H Rating: 2016-02-27
Best Tuner I ever had Time Owned: more than 12 months.
After speaking to Dave N2IRO I thought it was time to go with this legal limit Auto tuner with remote. I have it mounted in a NEMA 4 cabinet outside under my deck at the base of my tower. It has worked in temps ranging from -20 to 100+ degrees F with no issues. It has tuned several different dipoles of my own design and a few commercial dipoles at legal limit without any issues. I honestly believe it will tune a wet string. Like all Palstar tuners it is built like a tank. I have owned a TenTec 238b, Drake,MFJ 998c [POS] and many others, and nothing comes close to this battle ship. Great Job PALSTAR
KB3SI Rating: 2016-02-06
Excellent Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
When I decided to move up to an auto tuner from my TenTec 238B, I went with the HF Auto. All of the reviews on eHam that I read turned out to be accurate. This tuner finds the correct match and does so very quickly. Very well built. I am very happy with the HF Auto.
KC9YY Rating: 2016-01-27
Excellant Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have had several tuners through my 50 plus years in amateur radio, but nothing compares to the Palstar HF-AUTO.
Easy to set up and operate.
If I could give it a 10, I would.
It the best that I have ever operated.
VE3TCV Rating: 2016-01-03
Unbelievable piece of machinery! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
It took me a while to ponder and think about this purchase as my old Palstar AT2K tuner was working very well. The downside of manual tuning is that you need to mark or document tuner settings for each band, sometimes multiple settings for each band. Getting your settings wrong could damage your radio or amplifier and after spending money on a solid state amplifier I really did not want to risk damaging it. With this tuner I simply go to a frequency, key up my radio with a 10w CW SSB carrier until the Palstar tunes which usually takes less than 4 seconds. After tuning is complete I press "Operate" on my amplifier and off I go, it couldn't simpler and safer. The tuner has a very wide tuning range, most relay auto tuners can only match up to a 3:1, this Palstar can tune just about anything I throw at it, it can even tune my 6M-20M beam for 160M!!

This tuner is not cheap by any means, but knowing that is the last tuner I will ever need makes it a wise investment.
WB5JHY Rating: 2015-08-11
Quiet, reliable auto tuner Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I too have been on the waiting list for the Alpha 4040 for three years. Not really in dire need of a tuner but I feel safer operating the ocf dipole and double bazooka on the edges of some bands. The Palstar auto tuner works very well although a lot slower than the tuners built into the Alpha 9500 or Acom 2000A. I only have to remember to switch the amp to standby, and hit the tune button on the rig to set the tuner to the memorized band segment. The 9500 tunes to the pre-recorded band segment at the same instant even in standby. Flip the amp back to operate and it's ready. On the Acom 2000A the amp tunes to the band segment as you change bands or frequency so it's ready when you switch back to operate also. Either case it's very fast to jump bands or band segments, get on frequency and operate. It's comforting to know the amp is seeing l.15 or less swr even at the band edges for any of my antennas. I really don't see the need for the Alpha 4040 at this point.
K1PMA Rating: 2015-07-08
First impression - great! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Had a LDG PROII for 2 years which started to fail so I was looking for something better. Friend of mine recommended the HF Auto so I decided to go for it. Let's be honest, it's 3 times the price of the LDG so is it worth it? Only if you can afford it. That being said I really like the HF. It's big, it's heavy duty...Think F150 of auto tuners. Easy to configure and got it running in about 10 minutes (once out of the box). Everything about it screams quality. You will need a power supply that has 12V @ 5A to spare.

Like the fact that it supports 3 antennas. Also like that I get precise SWR and peak power readings. If can take up to 20 seconds the first time you let the tuner find the best SWR for your favorite frequencies. Subsequent tunes are faster but not as fast as with the LDG. Squeezing the last bit of SWR out of a auto tune by switching to manual is fun and easy.

For the moment I only have an amp putting out a max of 700 watts so not a challenge for this tuner but who knows what the future brings. To summarize: Great tuner. Buy if you have the desk space and spare cash.
AC4R Rating: 2015-07-01
Its a WINNER ! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
What a great tuner. I retired the ATR-30 and the HF-Auto is the king of the shack. It does everything they say it will. Very will built, heavy duty construction. I would buy another in a heartbeat !

73
AC4R
KE4WY Rating: 2015-05-04
Outstanding Time Owned: more than 12 months.
This is my favorite tuner of all time. I have used it to tune on every band and it has performed without a hiccup. Never an issue. Thank you Palstar.

LA9AKA Rating: 2015-04-05
Very satisfied! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I am extremely satisfied with this tuner. Easy to use, fast tuning and quality all the way.