Here's the scoop:

Bought a house, Ranch, with a finished basement. Half of the coax runs to a dish, the other half to the "cable" box. I'm gonna get tv from the local cablke co. I would like to wire it all up so its "cable " ready. I went to radio shack and asked if they had a coax tester, (I guess my other option is plug a tv into every jack) RS said they didnt have one.

Is there a easy way to test/ trace these wires?

Thanks,

 

Get a 9 volt battery, 2 solderless bread boards, a battery cap, and 2 female solder type coax connectors, and a small light bulb. Make on apply power to the cable, and the other one will act as the trace...

 

If there are any splitters, the splitter will not pass the DC from the battery.

 

Use can also use a small multimeter to test continuity. ( 10 bucks at RS ) they are handy to have for a homeowner anyway, a good little investment tool. Put a alligator clip jumper ( RS product too) from the copper center conductor of the RG coax and connect the other end of the jumper to the aluminum braided shield or sheathing or outside of the connector body if it has one on it. ( do this on one end of the cable only and dont let the jumper clips touch each other) then go to the other end of the cable , set your meter on ohms and touch one of the meter leads to the center conductor and the other meter lead to the aluminum shield or connector body. ( dont let the meter test leads touch either).. The clumsy use of the alligator jumpers could be avoided if one could just solder closed the internal connections on a old coax coupling, making it short out the cable too....

The omhmeter will peg out to zero if is reading continuity , showing you are on the same cable from one end of it to the other. Always test the meter first by touching the leads together while meter is on the ohms setting . Be sure to remove all shorting test devices when finished, so when the service is on, you wont screw up the cable signals. Be sure to take multimeter OFF of the ohms setting when finished, because it will run the internal battery of the meter down, plus most people use them for live voltage checks, and if that is done while it is on the ohm setting , the ac voltage will blow the fuse on them, and sometimes even fry the meter, making the person holding it mutter vile words . good luck jmo

 

An ohm meter will have the same problem as the battery suggestion if there is a splitter in the network...

 

Good catch Bob, I must have been typing while you were posting. Yes, I see now, a ohmmeter is using a dc battery powered meter also. I will need to prove /disprove that one to myself , as soon as I get out to my shop today. Other than him buying a cable tester , which he does not have and would likely never use again, what can he use to find his coax cables ?

 

Check out this URL, ....the cheapest solution might be moving a small TV room to room:

Tester

 

My undestanding of his post is that he is getting his cables ready for service, which means he has none now.

On Edit : I just performed my test method on a 1 input to 3 output RG 6 splitter, using two new patch coax cables. It worked great for me.

 

There is no reason that the splitter won't pass the DC current. THe box itself is a common ground, and the there is basically just a jumper between the 3 feed lugs.

 

The better splitters have impedence matching networks with a L-C network, and the capacitor won't pass DC.

 

All the ones I've ever used had no problem passing the DC... I do know that the new digital compatible ones are tricky....

 

I've got a nice craftman meter, just wasnt sure if i could use it for coax. I'm gonna try that. The other thing I thought about was hooking up the tv's in the rooms, then walking around with a vcr with a tape in it and plugging in at each connection. .

The part that sucks is 1/2 of this cabling is outside and its storming like hell right now

 

I got my coax tracer at HD. It was $25 or so. I had to do the same thing for a friend's remodeling project.

It has a set of colored coax plugs to put in the receptacles and a signal sender that has color keyed lights to indicate which lead it is hooked to. You just plug in the colored caps and go to the main hub or splitter and plug the sender into each cable and match the colors. If you have more than 4 or 5 you will need to move the caps after finding the first set and run through the rest. I also have a GB tracer that will do coax to track it through walls and ceilings. Both of my testers work through splitters.

 

Easily remedied with a VCR, antenna, DVD player, any standard TV input device....

 

Let the cable guy do it. Everything Radio Scrap seels is garbage. I used to work for Cablevision Systems in the north east, and all that garbage is just what it is, garbage. There is a reason that the cable companies and sat. companies use the cable, splitters, and fitting they do. It is because they have spend millions on R&D and the product they choose to use has yielded the best results with the least amount of problems.

Now as far as ameter is concerned, for any real testing you'll need atleast one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...527559832&rd=1