I bought the HF Auto after the LA!K and the improvement from an LDG1000 was stellar. O operating with a non resonant en fed antenna and the HF Auto is operating always with a SWR around 1.1 - The LA1K sees then no more than a SWR 1.3 which is important for the Amp to stay cool. Even if it can operate up to 2.5 thanks to a circuit that take the reflected power into a balast and not back to the transistors (very cool feature).?
I always tune the HF Auto with a 5W CW pulse from the Kenwood TS890. This limits the current on the Inductor roll during tuning and makes is more prone to last a longer time with its special conducting grease on it. While I do that indeed the LA1K is in Standby. I have had some issues on 80m but it was my fault. I had 2 end fed antennas 90 degres appart and the matching boxes were one agains each others. This created a leak that made the SWR unstable on 80m. Thanks to the LA1K very fine protection, it went into bypass SWR immediately even with a low power applied. This Amp is really well done. If it is not happy, you have a problem to fix down the line.
Eric KI1C