What is "Spiking" a coil to check bandwidth?

[radeonut]

I've been restoring radios since the 1970's, but I have a few TV's kicking around to do, and have been doing a fair bit of reading, and restoring my vintage TV alignment gear.
I'm teaching myself alignment on a run of the mill RCA portable. So far, not bad. Learning the hard way about matching pads, detector jigs, etc. and most certainly the effect of ground loops around the gear.
My question is thus:
The instructions mention "spiking" a coil to check bandwidth. The coil they mention is a fixed, air core, between the tuner output and the 1st IF tube. I am thinking they are talking about adjusting the coil spacing. I tried fiddling with that, but the bandwidth shown on my scope didn't seem to change.
Am I on the right track with this train of thought?

[old_tv_nut]

Spiking a coil is spreading the windings to tune it to lower inductance. "To check bandwidth" seems a bit weird to me. Maybe to adjust bandwidth? Could you post the exact instructions?

[radeonut]

I worded it incorrectly. The instructions are under Picture IF Sweep Alignment.
For the section where the 1st IF is to be adjusted, the wording is "Spiking L202 determines bandwidth". (L202 is between the tuner and 1st IF grid)
The coil as it was, was already tight. I don't think I need to touch it, but interestingly, I've tried a couple of different tubes for the first IF. One of them gives a nice bandwidth, placing the markers in the proper positions, but difficult to adjust the sweep waveform to get a decent double-peak. A different tube (same type) gives a good shape to the waveform with a nice double peak, but the bandwidth is narrower, placing the markers too far down the slope.