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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
KI4MF Rating: 2007-12-18
Outstanding Performance Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I have had the AT-AUTO for about six months now and I am absolutely delighted with the unit in every way. I use it with a PRO III and ZEROFIVE 43' vertical and it is deadly in contests. Just QSO and basically point and shoot. Follows the rig frequency automatically and gets 10W from the ICOM if it needs to tune. I have talked with Paul on several occasions and he has been most helpful and answered all my questions.
KB0VSL Rating: 2007-10-15
Can't Upgrade Firmware Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Purchased in Dec 06. Firmware cannot be upgraded due to a total redesign of the unit by Palstar without notification to previous buyers. I could find nothing on their website indicating this to consumers. Unit has locked up 2 times, stepper motors caused the case to vibrate loudly. Unit does not retain memories. Unit has to be turned off and then turned on several times in order for the CI-V to work correctly with my ICOM 7800. Very disapppointed after spending this large sum of money.
KG5I Rating: 2007-08-13
The Best out there Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Just like the previous reviewer, I totally agree. This piece of equipment is a real pleasure to use. Rock solid preformer and makes tuning a breeze. I do have a built-in tuner in my rig, but never use it because thie Palstar does such a nice job. Even when I run with no power, the Palstar gets the job done.

Service/Support are excellent from Paul. One big plus is he usually answers the phone there at Palstar. What other company puts a 3 year warranty on their equipment? I don't know of any others, but Palstar does it.

If your rig supports it, the auto band-tracking feature is great. The tuner stays tuned no matter where you go. With my current setup, I can only use the rigs serial port for PC or Tuner control, not both. I had my rig tied to the tuner for auto tracking for a while and it worked perfectly. However, if you don't connect that cable, the memories are plenty enough to get you tuned very rapidly.
WA2VEX Rating: 2007-07-28
Worth every penny!!! Time Owned: N.A.
I wrestled with parting with 1200 bucks for a tuner for a long time. I'm sorry I wasted all that time. THIS UNIT IS THE GREATEST THING TO HAPPEN TO MANKIND SINCE HEFNER INVENTED THE GIRL WITH THE STAPLE IN HER NAVAL! It does everything it promises and does it with quiet competence. Every antenna I have is 1.05:1 on every frequency. Totally class piece of equipment from a class company. I tried to explain this to my partner on the radio (Rose) and she looked at her watch and said, "Gosh look at the time". But if you are a ham, your eyes will get as big as saucers and your nipples will get hard as you watch this thing perform. It is freakin' unbelievable! Thanks Paul and the gang at Palstar (no, i don't do their commercials) you are what American genius unleashed by liberty is all about.
Jim Quinn W3VEX
Quinn and Rose Mornings XM-165 and syndicated local stations.
www.warroom.com
KD0MU Rating: 2007-06-25
Works Perfect Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The first thing I noticed was how well it was packed. A Great job!!

I bought this tuner with an Amp in mind later for my FT-2000. After everything was hooked up including the Com Port cable for the QSY function of the Yaseu I found it would not QSY after I stored my favorite frequencies. This is what I found:

The AT-Auto is set for a default of 9600 baud 8-N-1
The FT-2000 set at 4800 8-N-1.
You can either change the Tuner or the FT-2000.
Use Menu item 027 to change Baud from 4800 to 9600 on the FT-2000. I changed the Yaesu and all worked perfect. Hand shaking with the FT-2000 would be great, but not needed.

This would be a great help if added to the Tuner manual!

I like the Peak-Hold and Peak, AVG on the meter as I can tune a PSK31, or RTTY output to low power.

The tuner does not include a power supply, but I used a RS 3amp supply and all worked great.

The tuner is expensive, but it does everything it says it will. I am a happy camper.

I purchased the Tuner through Texas Towers.....and was pleased with the price and service. The Tuner was shipped direct from Palstar.




WD4PLE Rating: 2007-04-24
OUTSTANDING Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I HAVE ONLY USED THE TUNER WITH MY PRO 3 FOR ABOUT A WEEK. THE EASIEST TUNER I HAVE EVER USED. TURN THE RADIO TO THE FREQUENCY AND THE TUNER AUTOMATICALLY TUNES ITSELF. USUALLY TO 1 TO 1.05 OR LESS. THE FINE TUNE FUNCTION ALONG WITH THE ABILITY TO MANUALLY TUNE IT IS A PLUS. THE METER HAS AVG. PEAK AND PEAK AND HOLD. VERY ACCURATE ALSO. EXCELLENT PRODUCT. ONLY THING IT LACKS IS A MANUAL. I HAVE OWNED TEN TEC AND TWO OTHER AOTO TUNERS AND NONE COME CLOSE.
K4KAL Rating: 2007-04-22
Outstanding Product ! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I purchased my first as a trial, and just purchased 2 more. I now have 3 of these tuners and they are outstanding. Paul goes the extra mile to answer questions. I use mine with a Icom PROIII and the CIV interface. Once you get your memories setup with your particular antenna, it will track your vfo. Comes in very handy when doing those split's on 40M. I can't wait to see what else Palstar will have to offer at Dayton this year.
former_K4XG_Tom Rating: 2007-02-20
Excellent piece of equipment! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
The Palstar AT-AUTO tuner works as advertised. I use the tuner with an Alpha 87A and a wide variety of beams, verticals, and various wire antennas on 160 thru 10 meters. I have not tried the tuner on 6 meters. This is a high quality tuner and I am very pleased with its operation.

K4XG
KD0ZV Rating: 2007-02-07
Nice tuner and getting better Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
This is my third Palstar product. I bought The ZM-30 and AT1500CV about a year ago and have been very pleased. I am using the AT-tuner with my "non smart" rigs and it works fine. Once you get the tuner to memorize your favorite spots, it tunes pretty fast.

Once my smart rig (IC-7800) gets here I can use the CIV interface and not have to blip the tune button once to get it to know where I want to be. Not that its a big deal anyway.

Quality is great and Pauls service is the same.

As with all Palstar tuners it has a cross needle meter. Something I strongly dislike. But thats why I have a Array Solutions !

This is the only right way to get a legal limit auto tuner. I decided to stear clear of the small MFJ legal limit auto tuner.

73,

Rich
W4USA Rating: 2007-01-15
Quality Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Well built and well designed. I had some issues with it's need to sometimes attempt to retune while on the air or setting the amp. Paul is a very customer service person who went out of his way to help with some of the issues. The unit works fast and is impressive to watch. The software issue allows to get the latest technology and work-out any later found issues.
I give the unit an "A" and the company an "A+"