Quote:
Originally Posted by Magnavox300
Glad you asked!
What in the world is that brightener?
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A brightener is a small boost transformer that bumps the heater voltage to the CRT up a bit from 6.3 volts to 7.5-8.0 volts or so.
The purpose was to squeeze a little more time out of a tired CRT, if you remove it you may find the tube is weak enough to be unwatchable, it really depends on how weak it was when it was put on.
Some people have found brighteners on perfectly good tubes, perhaps put there by an unscrupulous repairman or a clueless set owner so hopefully your tube is good.
Running a good tube with a brightener will shorten it's life by running the gun hotter than it should be.
The other possibility is it's being used as an isolation transformer because the tube has a heater to cathode short, the transformer will isolate the heater so it won't affect the cathode circuit.
In any case I would try it without, if it still looks good then leave it off.