Probing the colpitts circuit in SPICE

If you load the oscillator in LT spice and run the sim it can help understand how the circuit works.

 I set the coil resistance as 1 ohm and the reference at the bottom of the tank.

I adjusted the coil resistance until it killed oscillations. You can see the signals levels falling as you come down the sequence. It was a good exercise in SPICE. I will have to build one on board and see if it will sing for me.