That is a very nice transmitter! I noticed the neutralizing capacitor's knob in this picture:
http://schmidling.com/2x8000.jpg Do you actually reach down in there with it on, or is this done with the HV turned off?
Thanks for the kind words. The knob is just a "touch of class" that I happened to have.
If you will note, there is a window (square hole) on the front panel for viewing pleasure. I have a long polystyrene tube with a soft rubber tip on the end. I can reach through the hole and turn either the knob or the cap plate directly for adjustment.
This is more just to be able to do it from the front as there is no need to adjust with the HV on so I never do it.
I can get it very close with a scope and link and then tweak it in a bit at a time with the HV off and check for grid current change with the HV on.
If you are wondering what those other NC's are for, they are a bandaid for when I added the second tube. The spacing got too small on the main NC for safety so I put them in parallel and set them once to about their minimum and just adust the home made one.
As a point of interest, I have no trouble driving this rig with the HB driver so this problem of not enough drive really doesn't make much sense.
On second thought, maybe it does as I do not use the 8000 rig on 40 meters and the 811's do work on 80 with it.
js