Don’t Ever Do this – Flaming Someone that asks a question to an email reflector

Here is a response I got when I asked a question on a Ham Radio Forum about people’s experience using RF Sensing External Antenna Tuners with a particular radio:

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Let’s play a game: It is called… “Find the Provision.”
Here is how it works:

1 Start a stopwatch.
2 Do a Web search to find a relevant document.
3 Then skim through it to find the salient instruction.
4 Stop the watch when you locate a provision that clearly
answers your question.

OK… I will go first…

I started my watch, opened a browser, and performed web search. My
search string was simply your MFJ model number. I clicked on a direct
link to the MFJ product page, and I downloaded the only available file,
which is the MFJ product manual. In a daring and reckless move, I
skipped the Table of Contents, and went directly to Page 1, and
immediately hit pay dirt… as it says “maximum SWR tuning accuracy
occurs when one uses between 10 and 20 watts.” But wait… not yet
satisfied, I continued to scroll through the document, until I found, on
Page 23, it clearly states: REGARDLESS OF TRANSCEIVER FOLD BACK, ONE
SHOULD ONLY TUNE USING 10 to 20 WATTS… only THEN, did I stop the
watch, and record my time:

First Round Time: 3 Min 12 seconds.

OK… Now it is YOUR TURN!

Let us know your score!

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I won’t put out the guy’s callsign, but I think this is a great example of why I rarely frequent email Forums on the ‘Net. If I had asked how to plug in the radio, I might expect this kind of response. But I was asking about others’ experience, which can not often be found in a manual. In fact if I consult the manual for my Radio, it doubtless tells me not to use any external tuner not made by the manufacturer. By the way – I never actually told this guy what particular Tuner model I was going to be using.