How can I prevent the Angular async pipe from making frequent server calls when no results come back?

I had a very similar issue, and it was due to how Angular2 change detection works. There are multiple solutions that worked for me.

Save a reference to observable so that it doesn't change

Right now your when you call persons getter, it always returns a new instance of Observable (e.g. a different object), so Angular reevaluates the whole thing, and during the next change detection cycle, it does it once again, and then again, ... So, this is how it can be solved:

@Component({
    selector: 'my-comp',
    template: `{{ _persons | async }}`,
}) export class MyComponent implements OnInit {
    ngOnInit() {
        this._persons = this.personService.list();
    }
}

Change the ChangeDetectionStrategy to OnPush

You may want to tell Angular: "I know what I'm doing, I'll tell you myself when some change occurred":

import { ChangeDetectionStrategy, ChangeDetectorRef, Component, OnInit } from '@angular/core';

@Component({
    changeDetection: ChangeDetectionStrategy.OnPush,
    selector: 'my-comp',
    template: `
      {{ persons | async }}
      <button (click)="reload">Reload</button>
    `,
}) export class MyComponent implements OnInit {
    constructor(private cd: ChangeDetectorRef) {}

    ngOnInit() {
        this.persons = this.personService.list();
    }

    reload() {
        this.persons = this.personService.list();
        // this tells Angular that a change occurred
        this.cd.markForCheck();
    }
}

Both of these solutions worked for me, and I decided to go with the second approach, since it's also an optimization