I have run out of significant things to fuss over, so I guess this project is nearly done.
Today, for fun I brought the Admiral out for a "Pepsi challenge" with my recently restored Philco 49-1240. I was expecting the 7JP4 to look dim and washed out next to the Philco's 12LP4, but it compares pretty well. These are unretouched daylight snapshots and both TVs are receiving OTA signal from my in-house transmitter on separate rabbit ears.
This TV had loads of retrace lines when I turned up the brightness to what seemed a desirable level, so I added this little blanking circuit that I read about a while ago.
I don't know if this circuit is the optimum solution for this TV, but it made quite an improvement without noticeable side effects.
Now, if it only had DC restoration . . .
Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html