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Reviews For: Palstar AT1500HB

Category: Antenna Tuners/Matching Networks

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Review Summary For : Palstar AT1500HB
Reviews: 2MSRP: 429
Description:
Introducing the new AT1500HB RF Matching Network. It a Fan cooled, High-pass network with shunt variable inductor (4 uH) and differential capacitor (240 pF x 2). Frequency range is from 6Mhz to 54Mhz.
Product is in production
More Info: http://palstar.com/at1500hb.php
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0025
NC0B Rating: 2010-11-19
Great set and forget tuner Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
Palstar has a new tuner with a different purpose than their line of general purpose tuners. The AT-1500HB is not an auto-tuner, and has no SWR metering. I consider it a “set and forget” tuner, generally to be used on a given band. It is a differential-T tuner that covers 6.9 to 54 MHz, though the original version I use on 15 meters covers 9.8 to 54 MHz.

All transceivers today and most amps prefer to see a good match, or the power is cut back or the amp faults. If you have single-band antennas with a higher SWR than you would like, this tuner solves the problem for a reasonable price. In my case I have two monoband yagis on 15 meters, and the match was different enough I could not switch antennas without retuning the linear. A pair of the 1500HB (HB stands for high bands) solved the problem 100%. (The tuner stays in the individual feedline, so when I switch antennas, I am also switching tuners.)

Likewise I have a 40 meter beam and a 40 meter extended double zepp, and the load to the linear on the beam was much different than the zepp. The AT-1500HB that now covers down to 40 meters was the solution.

With my Hy-gain 402BA when tuned to 7.2 MHz, the SWR never goes above 1.5:1 from 7.1 to 7.3 MHz. Set and forget! Since your rig likely has an SWR bridge, you don’t have to pay extra money for duplicate instrumentation.

The tuner has a cooling fan for the coil, for RTTY I suppose, but I have never needed it on CW or SSB.

W3JK Rating: 2010-11-19
Got back my 40m phone portion again Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
In the last year or so, I have been struggling with high swr on the phone portion of 40m. This is after putting up the 3 element yagi on 40m. The antenna is resonant on the cw portion of the band and obviously like all other 40m yagi's we suffer on the phone portion. The real issue was that my Alpha 87a didnt really like the slight high swr and kept tripping. I was forced to engage the tuner on the Yaesu Quadra and use the phone portion.
I was toying with bunch of ideas such as a L-Network etc to help me get on the 40m phone portion and properly use the 87a. I have been talking to Paul and he gave me some capacitor values last year to use on my L-Network and more recently, I called him to get a good inductor. At this time, he mentioned to me about this RF Matching network that he has and also being used by Rob Sherwood. I also spoke to Rob, who probably wrote a review for this product on eham and he was very happy with it. I called Paul and ordered one. It was still not offered as a product by Palstar on their website at that time.
I received the product and it was true to Palstar's build and workmanship quality. Before I connected the matching network, I opened the 6 screws and took a peek inside the box. What caught my attention was a nice wound inductor with #10 gauge wire and a differential capacitor. A simple but robust T network and nothing else. It has a fan at the bottom of the inductor to give addtional cooling if necessary.
I connected the box inline with my 87a and I tuned it around 7.175. My antenna presents a 2:1 swr at this frequency. The Palstar AT1500HB perfectly presented a match and the 87a was very happy that it saw no reflected power. With the same setting and no additional tuning, I am able to go from 7.100 to 7.250 without any issues.
I am extremely happy and I can also hear my 87a being even more exicted than me. No more high swr tripping.
Bottom line, it is a simple black box and will be your best friend if you are trying to grab some additional portions of the band.
I highly recommend it.