OK.
There are thousands of CRT's headed to the dump every moment of this decade. I know they can be converted into oscilloscopes (they already sweep, you just have to tap into the signal at the right point to deflect the beam how you want it. One problem, though, is that these are roughly AF---how to get them to work with RF?).
Now, hams like to explain radios in terms of block diagrams:
(TODO: Scour that site, it looks good)
Why not combine the two?
Make an actual transceiver in stages that equate to box diagrams, and have at each stage CRT oscopes as output!
Darnit, I hope your mind can one day recover from just being blown to bits. My bad.
Could probably use: PVC Stain
Oscope Hacks