Bill,

Thanks - that makes perfect sense. My approach so far has been to
tune around the bands looking for a CQ, then rush to tune up and jump
on it. Looks like more planning is required - pick a band, tune up,
listen within a segment of the band for activity, and fine tune after
contact has been established. I'll do that going forward (sure will
save a lot of wear on the knobs!).

So far no one has written to say "Hey, dummy, you'll burn up the
finals if you do it that way !!", so I know that I'm tuning this thing
up correctly.

There's lots of information available on radio regulations, band
plans, and how to initiate QSOs, but none that I could find on the
actual technical operation of a relatively (for me, anyway) complex
station - you've filled in the missing info, and I greatly appreciate
your help!

73, Wayne

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 16:34:38 -0400, --exray-- wrote:

While I wouldn't hesitate to operate at 7140 or 7265 in the example
given, if you're going to be staying there a while, a slight peak of the
drive and/or tune is simple enough...you can do that almost between the
other guy's "aaaahs" once you get the hang of it.
Once you're basically tuned up correctly all you need to do is hit the
TUNE position or key and make an ever so slight adjustment for max smoke
on the output or wattmeter....a couple of seconds.
I see you have a penchant for the numbers so consider what the
half-power (50 watt = 3db = 0.5 S-unit) bandwidth actually is. Pretty
wide, huh?
Your antenna will also have a lot of say in determining how far you can
roam without repeaking.
I'm not recommending running the thing "unpeaked" because the tube
parameters may be another issue but its not as picky as you are
perceiving it to be. Once you get a feel for it you'll see. You'll
also likely develop favorite parts of the band and find those wide
excursions to be rather rare.

GL,
Bill