OK, I'm going to quit dissing this poor little $20 craigslist Hoffman.
After replacing paper caps in the horizontal and sync sections, I decided to sub the 1B3GT and 6BQ6 tubes, out of superstition. (The others tested good, but you know.) I had also scrubbed the 1B3GT area with alcohol and given that resistor a good hard look.
When I went to play with the ion trap one last time -- bingo! -- the green glow was back, and within seconds I had a bright picture with terrific contrast and sharp focus. Don't ask me why someone put a brightener on this CRT. It looks as strong as a new one.
The second photo is receiving a cable broadcast with rabbit ears from my in-house transmitter, a decent real-world test of any old TV. A little blurry, but that's how all of my photos of live broadcasts seem to turn out.
Tomorrow I'll do some grown-up stuff like clean all of the pots and adjust the screen geometry, etc. It's fun to see it wake up, anyhow.
Phil Nelson