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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
WA4FOM Rating: 2014-05-10
My second HF-AUTO. Works fine, lasts a long time! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I reviewed the HF-AUTO before, and my opinions
stand. I ordered a second one mainly to take
advantage of the hardware upgrades and the
ability to continue updating the firmware.
I'll most likely keep the old one as a backup,
especially as it is still performing flawlessly.
VE6AMI Rating: 2014-03-08
Practical & Robust Unit Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Pushing this tuner hard with full output from Alpha amplifier on RTTY. No issues, tunes quick and seldom needs to do a retune. Expensive, but worth the cost.
AC5DF Rating: 2014-02-19
Very good Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a very nice fully automatic high power antenna tuner. Very user friendly and it works great. Looks great too. I am well pleased with it. AC5DF.
HB9AZT Rating: 2014-02-09
A real keeper... Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Received mine direct from USA, rattling noise inside when unboxing the tuner. Found the plastic pylons supporting the roller inductor floating around inside the tuner. After replacing this not very genious fixing by some solid vinyl-screws and nuts, the setup was very easy. Some very interesting and helpful features in the tuner, e.g. possible tuning power up to 100 watts, important for some commercial transceivers with lowest power setting of 100 watts, tuning locks when operating high power, so no bad surprises by undesired automatic tuning. Tuning range seems to be wide, could match a 21m long dipole on all bands and saved Settings are recalled in a few seconds. The tuner really takes QRO-Power even from a "hard" Transceiver like the R&S XK2900, no firing inside when bringing full power and even good matching on 160m. If you need a good "line flattener" for your coax-driven antennas, the search is over and I think this tuner will be a real keeper for QRO-stations. Did some measuring of tuner losses on a remote Receiver, no significant difference between bypassing and engaging the tuner. This tuner completed by a weather-proof containment and a web supported remote control would dominate the market!
KC0KW Rating: 2014-01-24
Excellent Unit, Well worth the extra money Time Owned: more than 12 months.
In my situation my antenna is a limiting factor because of my HOA. This tuner has made all the difference. It is built like a tank and has no problems handling high power with a poor antenna. Many of the features you get are not mentioned in most of the sales lit. I like to let the auto tuner get me close and then manually tune to perfection. This tuner lets me do that and it memorizes my settings on each frequency. I never expected the built in frequency counter. The unit has a digital SWR meter that is great to use as a reference when comparing a change I made to the antenna. It also has an analog SWR display I use when in manual tune and a nice digital watt meter. This is a very high quality unit and has made my operations quick and easy. If you look at all the things it offers it is easy to see why it cost a little more. I am very pleased.
KF7QLQ Rating: 2013-12-17
Very nice tuner Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I am very pleased with the HF-Auto. Very simple operation works for me. Tuning is within seconds and I bounce around allot. Build quality is superb. I will have this piece of equipment for a long time. Prior to purchase I had several conversations with Paul and he answered every question at a level that I could understand and appreciate. I purchased locally at HRO and it was loaded with the current release. Expensive but I believe one gets what you pay for.
VE3XKD Rating: 2013-12-04
Worth the money! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I love this tuner. There was very fast delivery from the on-line EBay store. Previously had SGC, Tokyo Hi-Power and several manual tuners. It can tune just about anything. Very well built, and obvious hi quality. It is very intuitive to learn. Didn't need to read the manual at all. Best of all, it is so quiet compared to the Tokyo Hi-Power and provides a much wider range for tuning. I love the display, I'm selling my three other tuners because this one 'is the best' !
W7AV Rating: 2013-12-03
Very Nice Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
You get what you pay for with this tuner. Easy to operate, change bands quickly, can handle 1.5 KW, and allows me to work 160m without having to retune every 5 KHz. I got tired of waiting for Alpha's auto-tuner and really this tuner does everything I need, like I don't need a Smith Chart. My only suggestion is a more in depth manual, something like I got with the Palstar AT-4K.
K6HR Rating: 2013-10-21
Finally a REAL tuner! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Now I can go anywhere, thanks to the HF-AUTO! I tried the so-called top of the line LDG tuner, and the MFJ auto tuners and they couldn't tune my Mosley TA33-JR WARC or my inverted V on every band. The Palstar HF-AUTO tunes everywhere! For the first time I can work all of 160 and 80m. Wow! The best SWR I've ever had. Typically 1.1 or better everywhere I tune! Worth every penny! I really like the built-in automatic antenna switch. The HF-AUTO is without a doubt the best tuner I've ever used. Also fast and quiet! I wish I could give it a 10
KH6DC Rating: 2013-10-12
Awesome Tuner Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Well had this thing for several years now. Got it from Palstar direct when it first came out and it's been working very well. Went through all the firmware upgrades and never looked back. Had a problem with tuning on 80m where ferrite beads on the power cable solved it. It tunes 160-6m perfectly and tunes my verticals, dipoles, g5rv and hex antennas. It's built like a fine luxury automobile or a fine swiss watch. Expensive but worth every penny.