There are times when the 40 and 20 meter bands are so busy that it can be difficult to find a spot to transmit while adjusting the antenna tuner. TenTec's Transmatch tuning Bridge is a great solution. The tuning bridge goes inline between the transciever and the transmatch. Adjust the tuner for a null in the noise pulses from the Tuning Bridge and your tuner is at 50 ohms. No transmitting required!

Here are the contents of the kit with the components inventoried and identified for easy selection as the building proceeds.

With the circuit board stuffed and soldered it is test and alignment time. Alignment requires only a power supply, DVM and ham band reciever.

After some layout and hole work, everything is bolted in and connected. The only changes that I made were a socket for the IC and a reverse polarity protection diode. (Guess why?) If I am going to do some band hopping then I plumb the Tuning Bridge between two coaxial switches (like a railroad siding). Great accessory and a fun kit to build!