Yes, it seams that we all know that the tuner becomes part of the antenna system, and since it is all in a metal box, it does not radiate, or make the antenna better at radiating than it is, it just protects the transmitter from an impendence mismatch. The best place for a tuner is on the antenna, not the feed line, unless the feed line is balanced line. So when LDG told me that my new tuner will work up to 10:1, I thought that they were counting on a bunch of idiots buying their tuner. Most radios with built-in tuners will match 3:1 or better, that is a more realistic approach to what a tuner should have to do. Yet when some hams review a radio with a built-in tuner, they criticize the tuner for only being 3:1 or better. As Hams, we are supposed to know how to build a resonant antenna, and those of us who buy the antenna, expect that it will be resonant. So where did LDG get the notion that Hams need an auto tuner that can handle 10:1 or better. Does this go back to what some old hams brag about? everyone must have heard of some old ham using their monster manual tuner to tune a fence, or an umbrella, or some other odd metal object, and making a load of contacts with it? Lest they forget that millions, and millions of contacts have been made on 5 watts or less. So when they pump the full legal limit into a fence, I'm sure that their tuner was heating up while it was eating 98% of their power.
So that was the argument I had with another ham, I insisted that the tuner would get hot, and the heat is because the tuner is consuming the power that does not make it out to the antenna. The other side of this argument said that the tuner made the antenna a better match for a full transfer of power to the antenna. Wrong I said, think of what a Transformer does, and how it gets warm. The transformer is as perfect as it can be, so the match is as good as it can be considering the match they are making, yet it still gets warm in the process of lowering or raising the voltage.
Then I mentioned the dummy load, and how it makes the transmitter happy by being 50 ohms. yet if you put that dummy load in open air, it will transmit, but not very well. That's because the dummy load will eat most of the power and turn that power into heat. All of this is within our direct control, once the signal leaves, it is out of our control.