Mike,

I've not used this tube, although it has been around forever.  My 
understanding is that  2 things that will kill the tubes are too much 
drive and/or too much key down time while tuning.

Here is a link from W8JI's page.  He worked for Ameritron years ago and 
designed some of the amps still in production.    I think he may have 
had some input in the MFJ/Ameritron SS amps being offered today.

Here is his tuning info on 811 and 811H amps.   Of course neither of the 
methods shown here use  the TW-1 tuning tone, but maybe you can glean 
some helpful info.

http://www.w8ji.com/al811h_and_811_tuning_supplement.htm


73, Steve KW3A



On 1/22/2014 9:58 PM, Alan R. Downing wrote:
> Michael, I am not familiar with those other amps, but when you tune up the
> 811H, Personally I would not drive it with more than about 45 watts.  I was
> driving mine with 60 watts and burned up a set of Chinese tubes.  Now I
> drive it with 45W, and get about 500 to 550 watts out.  Since I primarily
> use it on 10 meters, that is enough.  I don't have any Braille markers on
> mine, I just go by the direction that the arrows are pointing.  It took a
> few times to remember where to put them, but it was no big deal.
>
> HTH
>
> Alan
>
>
> Alan R. Downing
> Phoenix, AZ
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Mike Ryan
> Sent: Wednesday, January 22, 2014 6:37 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Tuning up the 811 amp
>
> Hi John and Alan:
>
> I believe Alan you got the H and John you had the 811.
> I want to run by my perspective tune up procedure by you both.
> Having own a Heath SB-1000 and SB-220, both amps could take a beating and
> keep on ticking, I'm thinking I might have to go a little easier on the
> 811H.
> When I tuned up my previous amps, this is how I did it.
>
> Heath SB-1000
>
> I would set my exciter to about 10W in the CW mode and desired band, along
> with my amp to the desired band.
> Would key my exciter and just adjust plate and load controls to achieve the
> highest pitch at that power level about 180W.
> If I was going from lets say 40M to 80M, I wouldn't pre set, I had no
> braille on this one.
> I would just rotate my plate control counter clockwise going from 40 to 80
> and would go clockwise on the load, bringing the pitch up. I would go back
> to stand by, setting my exciter to 100w, reKey and adjust the load control,
> tweaking the plate. This would result in 1150W out.
> I would then go back to standby, reducing my exciter to about 60,
> activating the amp again running about 800W in SSB.
> The only difference with the SB-220 was I used to preset to my desired band
> before tuning, with braille marks around the plate and used another piece
> of braille to make my pointers.
> I'm thinking that I might have to preset both the load and plate controls
> for my desired band with the 811H.
> Sorry to be long winded. LOL
>
> TNX & 73:
>
> Michael DE VO1AX
>
>
>