Angiernc - I was looking at my manual, as well, when I quoted the 75 mA recommendation. Perhaps the F1 model I have is different from the standard model or maybe recommendations changed during the course of production. I definitely got the recommendation of 65-70 mA directly from Steve Witek at Cary, wrote it down in the back of the manual while I was talking with him.
I wasn't trying to make an issue of the bias value, I was just curious since the 100 mA figure was different from both what was in my manual and the verbal advice from Steve at Cary. The real issue here, of course, is the erratic behavior during biasing that Dbrewer12345 is experiencing.
Dbrewer12345 - One thing I forgot to ask in my first post is whether you're using an analog or digital meter. Don't know if that makes any difference but my experience with the SLI-80 is only with digital meters.