[old_tv_nut]

1) Don't understand what "horizontal lines in the colors" means. Can you post a picture?
2) No idea why blue vertical lines are stronger than horizontal lines. Maybe a shorted coil?
3) A "beat pattern" means stripes or herringbone interference in the picture. If your signal has audio content, the pattern will move along with the audio content. You should easily recognize it as something that doesn't belong there.
4) If the setup requires a sweep generator, you must use a sweep generator. This is the case for IF alignment and color alignment if the service instructions say so. The good news is that these seldom change, especially not in solid state sets, as long as components have not failed, so the best bet is to skip alignment and see if the picture and sound are OK without it.
5) The H oscillator will float a bit normally just from random voltages in the chassis. The important thing is that it's not skewed entirely one way or the other. Going back and forth a bit is fine. When you remove the ground, it should lock up, and that's all you need.