John,
You can manually de-gas the ionizer and oven filaments.
It looks like you had already brought the oven up to temp so just work on
the ionizer.
You can bring the voltage up slowly and keep watch on the ion pump
current so it does not get too high.
Once you have got it up to the rated
Actually your earlier advice proved golden. I believe I've been able to
verify that the tube is at least within throwing distance of its factory
spec (see test results at http://www.ke5fx.com/cs.htm including the
configuration details).
I haven't tried playing with the low-frequency test coil at
