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Reviews For: Kessler Engineering AT-AUTO

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : Kessler Engineering AT-AUTO
Reviews: 88MSRP:
Description:
Production of the legacy AT-AUTO was halted per court-enforced settlement and to facilitate product improvement and redesign.

Kessler Engineering continues to service and support the legacy AT-AUTO, and is continuing to develop and release new firmware, which is freely available from the Kessler Engineering website for use on any AT-AUTO.

Although temporarily out of production, this is still very much an active product.

The revised AT-AUTO builds upon the capabilities of the legacy AT- AUTO and will debut shortly. Please contact Kessler Engineering directly for support and information.

Thanks, Don ki6sz@sbcglobal.net

Product is not in production
More Info: https://kesslerengineeringllc.com/tuners.html
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
25884.9
K6HJM Rating: 2008-07-27
Buy it and forget it! Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
This tuner seems to work and work and work...and I don't need to do a thing! No problems installing it (ICOM 756 Pro II, Hexbeam, 40-80 dipole)...just pushed "tune" every 10 kHz or so on my ICOM and the AT-AUTO stored all the info. And if you don't use ladder line it is easy to install a second coax connector...and yes it stores 250 points for each coax.

IN BRIEF: buy it, install it, forget it!

Herb K6HJM

G8UBJ Rating: 2008-05-22
Ahead of its time Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I could see from that the early reviews that this product was a sort of work in progress. When I thought it had matured enough I took the plunge. Palstar have a good history of making QRO tuners so making an auto tuner is a logical step (Better than a software outfit moving into the tuner market). I haven’t been disappointed, this is an excellent tuner and I believe that whilst there may be a few small issues these really don’t detract from a great product which is now 95% perfect.
If you take the time to read the manual and give it time to settle in you won’t be disappointed. I particularly like the following -
-the nice large buttons
- Easy to read display and large meter
- A tuner that follows you as you tune the bands.
- You can configure the tuner to select the antennas you want for each band
- Nice quiet tuning
- A very accurate meter. I monitor the input with my Bird 43 and the meter in the AT-Auto is accurate both on power and SWR. I think this is one of the single most important aspects of this tuner. If the meter wasn’t accurate no amount of firmware updates would improve the product.
- I only run 250watts RTTY so the 1.5k is very conservative but I can now upgrade to a bigger linear when it suits me.
- It tunes everything, even my 20M dipole on top band!! I have a vertical for top band which of course works better but it does demonstrate the flexibility of this tuner.
The roller inductor took a week or so to run in, its now quiet but when I first used it the tuner made a squeaking noise when beetling down to 80M or top band.
Like a previous reviewer I modified the unit for dual coax output. Maybe one day I will use the internal balun, but currently both my antennas use coax.
The 5% is for operation of the QRO function. The tuner can cycle when tuning with 10 Watts then trips out with full power. Maybe in the future Palstar will adjust the software to tune once at low power (10W no amp) then again with full power.
Yes its expensive but as they say, buy the best and only buy once!
K5HSV Rating: 2008-05-14
The BEST Legal Limit Auto Tuner Out There Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I've owned my AT-AUTO now for over six months without any problem other than my own. The only thing I can say is that I downloaded the updated firmware and didn't follow instructions correctly which required me to call Paul at Palstar to confess my sin. He was awesome, told me pack it up and send it back to the factory. He installed a new PC board, sent me a new manual and installed the new updated back pannel with the nice option that keeps you amp from receiving power while you tune. I was so impressed that he paid for the shipping back to my QTH and the total cost for everything he added and did was absolutely zero! Now that's service. I used mine with a Kenwood TS-2000 and a Commander HF-2500 Legal Limit +++ amp flawlessly!

As far as the operation, it works flawlessly. One nice feature is QRO keyline. The latest version AT-AUTO (2.07a) features the QRO Keyline. This locks an outboard amplifier into standby until the auto tuning is complete. This feature protects both the AT-AUTO and your expensive QRO amplifier from damage caused by the high voltages that can occur when QRO power is fed into a mis-matched load.

It also has data connectors that interface to my Kenwood transceiver, the tuner automatically follows bands and frequency changes. That's a very nice feature for DXers that need to point and shoot. Granted you still have to wait for the tune process to complete, however, it's hands off and allows you to use your hands for something else like CW keying or logging.

The 2 year limited warranty that I can attest to that Palstar honors.

You can't go wrong with this auto tuner. You had better have some shelf or desk space for this unit... it's a big boy tuner for QRO power.
CHRISGM Rating: 2008-05-05
Very high quality product Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Purchased about a month ago from HRO. Traded in an LDG AT-1000, and a Palstar 1500 CV. Set up was straight forward, except for operator error, and the need for a quality( DX Engineering) 4:1 current balun for my Cobra UltraLight Jr. Interface with my Yaesu FT-1000MP Mark V was seamless. I just love how the tuner follows my frequency changes, and the quiet humming as it goes about its business. Customer service was prompt, and tactful in pointing out my failure to read the instruction properly. I have yet to find a freq. that the AT-Auto can't find a match for. I like to wander about the bands, and the AT-Auto's automatic matching is just great.
W0KYZ Rating: 2008-03-29
Works very well Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I have used this tuner over all the HF bands except 160m and it performs very well. It tunes quickly and gives very low swr readings whenever a match is found. I had a few issues with the tuner when used in conjunction with Ham Radio Deluxe (not the fault of the tuner it turns out), but worked around this by using the other side of my xmit relay to disconnect the radio CI-V circuit from the tuner during transmit. This seems to have cured the spurious signals coming from my computer which changes setting on my IC-7000. It is very nice to have the tuner follow you around while just in receive mode and then fine tune with a single button push. Great product and built very well.
W4RVN Rating: 2008-03-25
Great tuner and Customer service Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Have had mine for over a year now. I had one of the early models without the bypass switch. Sent it back and was upgraded at no charge. I even added a second coax output by removing the internal balun and adding a coax connector. Works flawlessly. Has tuned everything I have thrown at it.
K1BGH Rating: 2008-03-20
THE PRODUCT WORKS VERY WELL Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
The at-auto has done every thing I have asked it to do in my daily operating. It follows the band and frequency changes very effectively with my ft-2000 and Alpha 374. The antenna is a inverted-v, 140 feet long, up 87 feet and 90 feet of 300 ohm parallel line down to a 1 to 1 balun at the base of the tower. From there, its a fourty foot run to the shack on the second floor with co-ax. The tuner even allows me to get on 160 locally . Good Job Paul ! Art K1BGH
K4PRO Rating: 2008-02-01
Excellent Auto Tuner Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a very nice Auto Tuner. If you are thinking about buying one this is the one to buy. Works 100% of the time. I have it connected to a Yaesu FT-2000 and an Alpha87A. Setting it up was a breeze. Not much more to say about the product. Its Great! I won't mention the compnay that I purchased it from in DelRay Beach Florida. All I can say is buy it direct or from an "authorized" dealer. After I purchased it I realized that it was not a Authorized dealer. If it were not for the fact that I checked before it was shipped to me I would have ended up with one of the earlier models, which is not upgradeable, and have many problems. Paul is a very nice person. You can tell he has a passion for making a great product. I love my Palstar antenna tuner and it will be a permanent addition. BTW it looks really good with the Alpha87A.
K3GO Rating: 2008-01-15
Excellent autotuner - Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Purchased tuner last summer. It sat around in box until I returned from holidays and I installed it to find software was down rev. I updated and tuner had some noises in roller inductor. Call Palstar, spoke with Paul, he said there were updates for unit. Shipped to factory and turned it around < week. Tuner came back and works even better, faster and I am MOST impressed with their QUALITY, SUPPORT and turnaround time.
The tuner tunes my 160 & 80 meter antennas rapidly, allows me to tune 30, 17 and 12 meters on my wire antennas and is great to use. In Manual mode you can touch up settings, it remembers your settings, displaying frequency and SWR.
I have owned Miller, Icom, Heath, Yaesu auto-tuners. This is the best one I have ever seen. Quality of components, finish and operation with my Drake L7 is great.
It's a great tuner and a solid company. This is my first Palstar product and I will be purchasing other items from them due to their support and friendly attitudes. Thanks
N4HNH Rating: 2007-12-23
Improved Support Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is a follow-up to my previous posting. I am happy to report that Palstar contacted me and I worked with their technical staff to get QSY tracking support for my Yaesu FT-920.

The problem with Yaesu is that nearly every Yaesu rig uses a different CAT protocol. The operating manuals for the radios fall short of a complete explanation of the protocol for VFO following, thus a comprehensive test requires access to a rig, and in my case a rig that has not been in production for a few years.

Palstar was able to include FT-1000 and FT-990 because people were willing to allow their rigs to be used for the necessary tests. What I had to do, to avoid sending my rig off to be used as a guinea pig, was ascertain the exact data string returned by the rig to represent a series of frequencies in the various ham bands. They had me download and install Amateur Contact Log. My rig is one of the supported rigs in the program so the logging program can automatically read the VFO setting. I was given a list of frequencies to set the VFO to and then I copied the resulting data string (displayed by Amateur Contact Log's radio setup screen). Once Palstar had this information they could create an entry to support my FT-920. The support was quick and complete. In fact they finished Saturday night, Christmas weekend.

I must say this is quite awesome! I can go to any frequency on any HF band with my rig and the tuner switches to my preferred antenna for that band and adjusts to the appropriate settings as previously recorded during the setup phase. I get functionality such as is normally possible with the rig's internal tuner but now I can have that automation for up to the legal limit.

Setup was nothing more than transmitting a 10-20W AM carrier every 10-25KHz on each band and letting the tuner find the best match positions for the C and L stepper motors. The tuner has 250 memories for each antenna connector, coax or balanced wire. I sampled/stored every 10KHz on 160m but sampled/stored every 15-20KHz on the other bands.

My take on Paul at Palstar is that he is a perfectionist. I have run into those types in the music industry. These are people who make custom guitars, basses, amps, etc. They build top quality for top dollar and they live for the acclaim of pleased customers. In the music industry we call this boutique gear. These boutique designers are a combination of artist and engineer all rolled into one. An engineer is usually analytical while an artist is sentimental. These boutique types are both. Thus, after they have worked so hard to make something we will rave about, criticism of any sort translates into taking the wind out of their sails. Their expertise will clearly outweigh their people skills. So in the end, I have to ask myself, do I want to speak to some who is nice but cannot deliver or deal with a perfectionist who may not be so personable but delivers a product that will give me years of service and enjoyment?

One of the knobs on the front panel is mislabeled. It’s the one used for manual tuning and menu selection. Mine is labeled Mode-Select while the operating manual refers to it as a Tune-Select. This however does not affect functionality, once you realize the inconsistency. I personally prefer the term Tune-Select since the knob is used for manual tuning and menu selection, but it isn’t worth sending the tuner back. I’m so spoiled now I don’t think I could bear to be without it.

So I got off to a rocky start with Palstar but I am happy now. As I said before, I think this thing could tune a rain gutter, tin roof, or my kid’s swing set. If you are tired of turning knobs and want to spend more time on QSOs then the AT-AUTO is the key. Imagine having this when you’re working a contest.