I normally don't operate on am and only re tune my Palomar 300a about once a week. The operating manual says once the amps tuned for max it's ready to go on ssb and that's exactly how I run it. I do notice after tunning the 300a for max it definitely needs to be over coupled for am use (turning the load knob 1/4" clock wise as per manual installation) other wise the audio reports on am will be "scratchy". As I mentioned I don't operate on am often but emedietly after tunning for max i heard a 1sd227 from Italy. I wanted to make the am contact so turned the load knob a cunt hair clock wise and made the contact. I forgot to return the load knob to it's original position as to achieve max output before switching to ssb.when I switched to ssb i noticed a bit more than 125 watts higher output on ssb with the amp over coupled. Now I know 125/150 watts isn't gonna make a huge difference if any at all on the other end but may help when skip conditions are poor. Can running the amp like this on ssb have a bad affect on my components (tubes) by not having the amp tuned as per manual operating specs (max smoke) for ssb?. I would think it wouldn't mater but I'm not tecnicly knowing that's why I'm asking. Thanks