There I was listening to @EA5IYL activating EA5/AT-058 on CW just now and then I heard the horrible sound of the motors in an auto ATU buzzing away for 10 seconds right on top of Mikel’s signal.
I often wonder if the operators doing this are aware that they are making a transmission when they press the TUNE button, as it happens so often. It’s so easy just to tune off the frequency in use, tune the ATU there and then tune back to the frequency of interest and make their call.
73 Phil G4OBK
I can’t hear Mikel, but I hear short digital bursts between multiple stations on his frequency.
I’m glad I could eventually work you, Phil. And Carlo, I hope I can work you again soon!
By the way, you may have noticed that my sending was not just messy as usual but even messier.
My Bamakey TP-II was out of adjustment and the dits paddle sometimes stuck, which made iambic keying useless. I ended up configuring the Xiegu G90 for a straight key and using the dahs paddle as a straight key. The cold breeze, and the fact that the dits paddle sometimes made a contact, made it hard for me. I feel thankful for the thirty or more stations that worked me anyway!
Well done Mikel, yes I noticed a different and less fluent fist than the usual Mikel fist!
Hope you fix the key for next time, maybe doesn’t like the temperature.
73 Phil
Phil, it is an incurable disease, unfortunately 
73, Jarek
Phil,
My ATU kerclunks at about two per second. Solid relays. If you hear that you know who is about to call 
73
Ron
VK3AFW
And when it’s not with the ATU, they whistle. I should record them and make a song out of it.
My favourite peeve is when I have the headphones on, straining to hear a weak signal, some idiot checks his tuning with a quick burst of S9+ carrier. I swear that my 'phones straighten out and then smack back, leaving my ears ringing. Inconsiderate b****rs!
I’m sure that many don’t realise that an Auto-ATU needs RF to tune up with. It’s an added issue on HF today. There have always been “tuners” that haven’t taken the time to check the frequency before transmitting a carrier. Whislers should certainly know better.
I had to smile the other day while having a chat on 40m SSB with a prominent operator that has a super antenna and runs 1kW out. We used to be in the same contest group back in the early 80s, so we were discussing how things have changed over the decades. It was his over and in the background suddenly up pops someone saying “yeh yeh yeh, blah blah blah…”. Of course it made no difference to the QSO as he was transmitting against a 30dB over S9 signal and we both ignored him. He soon gave up.
An auto ATU normally tunes up in a couple of seconds. It’s those with manual tuners who spend aeons squeezing every last 1/100th of a dB out of the system that bug me.
I use a manual tuner, and with the aid of a settings list pinned to the wall can get a good tuning in a few seconds. (actually it is two settings lists, one for wet weather, one for dry - 300 ohm window ribbon is weather sensitive!) Taking a lot of time to get it tuned is simply incompetant.
Ditto, with my 50 year old home brew Zmatch. Now that I have a modern radio, I find that I can fine tune the match by watching the spectrum display without transmitting anything. Just rock the controls and watch the “hump” move!
Phil’s thread reminded me of the annoying “warrrrrrrrrloh, warrrrrrrrrrrrrrloh’s” that used to be heard before auto ATUs became popular.
It’s an operator issue, either ignorance or carelessness, but also something that can be mitigated in software, case in point: Elecraft tuners, unless you intentionally ask for it they don’t start a tuning cycle on their own, you’ll get a mismatched load and it’s up to you noticing it, additionally they recall a tuning solution for that frequency on receive, even if you’re not going to send RF.
My IC-7300 by contrast starts a new tuning cycle on tx if it finds the SWR too high, it can be instantaneous or it can take 5 seconds and be extra annoying to everyone, you don’t know beforehand, you might have wandered away too much from the dip and ricketyrackety it goes.
I don’t tune often, but when I do, I go to full power on frequency and let 'er rip. 
It definately wasn’t you on 20m at 0920z. There would not have been propagation! 
N1CLC: Don’t forget you also have a DOS EQUIS, too !
Yuk Yuk…
73
k6YK
What I really like is when a station gets spotted, be it DX or SOTA, or whatever, as soon as the spot gets out, a carrier lands on top of him tuning up. Or on SSB, “Alllllloooooo Alllllloooooo” Or “Hooollllllaaaa Hoooolllllllaaaaa” Most annoying!
K6YK
Most annoying, intentionally. Antisocial creatures infest amateur radio, unfortunately. Licenced doesn’t mean competent or benign. Sad though, I agree.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA
In such an environment, isn’t it somewhat paradoxical that QRP enthusiasts in particular try not to disturb anyone when matching their antenna?