[Amps] 8877 wont load on 80M

[Dick NY1E]

I was working 40 & 75 meters tonight, and found with the bandswitch just off the detent of 80M, it has 1100 watts output! The amp uses a B&W 850 and I have another bandswitch coupled behind it to switch in  capacitors to pad the plate tuning thru a vacuum relay to switch in another 300 pf and another relay for 1100 pf on the load cap for 80 & 160. The switches must not be synced (sic). When I shorted the relays (without power) for the rf  analyzer test it didn't show the relay wasn't kicking in! Neither control is at max for 1100 out, but I'll except that for tonight!!!

--- On Fri, 1/18/13, Dick NY1E <dick at ny1e.com> wrote:

From: Dick NY1E <dick at ny1e.com>
Subject: 8877 wont load on 80M
To: amps at contesting.com
Date: Friday, January 18, 2013, 9:42 PM

I have a homebrew 8877 that has been working fine for 12 years on 160 and 40 thru 10, but I never had an 80M antenna. I finally got one up and the amp wont load on 80. It is stable, draws full current, but puts out less than the input.Driven with very low power it amplifies, but turn the drive above 10 watts and the output drops to 0. I've tried adding and subtracting padders to the plate and load caps. there is no tuned input. more specific pi-net info on my webpage;  http://www.ny1e.com/newamps.htmAny ideas???Thanks, Dick NY1E