8. Stations tuning up on your frequency for several minutes and then
starting to call CQ SS on the frequency you are working.
Unfortunately, a fact of contest life... and (again, unfortunately) not
limited to contest times.
One notices this also in DX pileups. The DX is working split and a
procession of lids tune up precisely on his sending frequency.
In any case, minutes-long on-air tuneups are inexcusable (and perhaps
illegal, since they are avoidable).
In my station, I have the transceiver, a manually adjusted tuner, a MFJ-207
and a dummy load connected to a DPDT coax switch. In the "tune" position,
the 207 is connected to the tuner and I can take as long as I like to make
the tuner look like a 50 Ohm load. (Yes, the 207 transmits a milliwatt or
so, but it usually does not cause interference.) Also, in that same
position the transceiver is connected to the dummy load, and I can get the
optimal setting to produce the desired power level into a 50 Ohm load
without putting a signal on the air.
Then I flip the switch to the "operate" position, and I'm good to go. In
this mode the transceiver is connected to the tuner and the DL and 207 are
left dangling.
Some purists will point out that because of limited accuracy of instrument
calibration, this does not usually create a perfect 50 Ohm to 50 Ohm match.
Nevertheless, the match is close enough that I seldom need to make any
on-air tweaks. In the rare case that I do need to make a final tweak on the
transceiver at full power on-air, I can do it in less than a second.
73,
Steve Kercel
AA4AK
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