[ghjkl67]

Don't apologize for writing so much. Keep the thoughts coming. You're a great help. I had no idea what the thyratron curve meant until now. I'll reconnect the bypass caps for testing.

I attached an image of the grid waveform in both activated and deactivated position (The scope is for a vertical scale of 2v per division). The deactivated waveform is just a basic sine wave coming from the step down transformer. Plate voltage is 125vac. The activated waveform cuts off the bottom of the sine wave. Activated, the plate is about 75vac.

What I'm having trouble understanding is how to measure the grid voltage? It is a combination of AC and DC through the grid coil. Can I set the meter for DC and measure the grid voltage accurately? Maybe the scope image is enough to determine this info, but I don't know enough to understand it. The cut off mark looks like it is at -1v. Possibly, the grid voltage is -1 vdc (multiplied by 1.41 to account for RMS)? Just my thoughts.

As for the grid coil, I did try disconnecting it from the thyratron a while back. Still the thyratron remained activated. Just now, I tried activating the tube and then shorting the coil. The tube remained activated. The tube, however, will not activate if the coil is already shorted.