Hi,

I'm new to the HF bands (upgraded licence earlier this year), and
rather than go for a modern transceiver, I decided to set up and
operate a boatanchor type station. I just finished acquiring the
components required, and I'm looking advice from someone experienced
on this vintage of equipment on the procedures to follow when
operating the station.

Equipment:

Heathkit SB-400 HF Transmitter
KW Electronics SWR Bridge and Power Meter
Dentron Super Tuner
Antenna Switch
Heathkit Cantenna Dummy Load
3-band dipole antenns (40, 20 and 10 meters)
Icom R-70 Receiver (OK, not quite a boatanchor, but it was cheap!)
DSI 3550 Frequency Counter (ditto, but wanted some way to get right on
freq. with the transmitter!)

So far, this is what I have figured out for a process:

Call CQ:

- select clear frequency on RX
- switch to dummy load
- select band on TX
- tune TX freq dial to RX frequency plus 1 MHz (offset to put Heath
BFO on freq. - determined by trial and error)
- Select TUNE mode (5 seconds on, 5 off during adjustments so as not
to overheat finals), and fine tune TX using freq. counter
- switch to dipole antenna
- select CW mode
- transmit call sign and tune TX for max power output at low power
setting
- tune antenna tuner for min SWR
- adjust TX for high power, retouch tuning for max power out
- retouch antenna tuner for min SWR
- select LSB or USB mode on TX, depending on band being worked
- station ready for operation, call CQ.

Answer a CQ or join a net call:

- select clear frequency (near as possible to the QSO freq.) on RX
- switch to dummy load
- select band on TX
- tune TX freq dial to RX frequency plus 1 MHz (offset to put Heath
BFO on freq. - determined by trial and error)
- Select TUNE mode (5 seconds on, 5 off during adjustments so as not
to overheat finals), and fine tune TX using freq. counter
- switch to dipole antenna
- select CW mode
- transmit call sign and tune TX for max power output at low power
setting
- tune antenna tuner for min SWR
- adjust TX for high power, retouch tuning for max power out
- retouch antenna tuner for min SWR
- switch to dummy load
- retune RX to QSO freq.
- retune TX to QSO freq. + 1 MHz. Key the TX, and fine tune using
freq. counter.
- switch to dipole antenna
- select LSB or USB mode on TX, depending on band being worked
- if the QSO is still in progress after all of this, join in!

Not sure if these procedures are correct - if anyone would care to
comment and amend them, I'd be appreciative! My procedure for
answering a QSO is fairly time consuming - there must be a better
(faster??) way!

Thanks in advance,

Wayne