Any way to test if two ends among some coax cables belong to the same cable?

tttsheridan

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3 dishes with about a dozen cables connected to the LNB swich.
I want to know which is the other end of the cable connected to my receiver in my apartment .
Is there a way to test without using some electrical meter or device?
and because the cable is about 25m, if you drag or pull it:eek:, you see nothing on the roof.

I will really appreciate your idea here.
 

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Disconnect a cable from the switch and check if the picture disappears from the tele. If it doesn't it's the wrong cable.
 

tttsheridan

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Guess if there is no better idea, I will have to make the runs.
 

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tttsheridan said:
Guess if there is no better idea, I will have to make the runs.

I'm not sure there is another way without a meter.

I use a loopback socket, which is basically a wall plate, wired so that the dielectric and outer braid are connected. I can then use a multi-meter on continuity mode to ID each cable.

For a cheap tester you could use a battery and a light bulb.
 

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He could of course use a telecoms toner and send a signal down the cable from the stb end and then trace which cable he can pick up the signal at the other end
 

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Lol, at BT we used to have to find one cable out of 100's sometimes, using a toner at one end and headphones incorporating a coil passed over the mass of cables at the other end(s) :-doh2
 

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I use both the 2 following ns1608 and ns 1600 both would do the job although expensive for one off job, if used regularly they are a godsend and worth every penny:)

_http://www.sacelectronics.co.uk/ProductList.aspx?Sub=55

I also believe Vision make similar products
 

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kenny1234 said:
I use both the 2 following ns1608 and ns 1600 both would do the job although expensive for one off job, if used regularly they are a godsend and worth every penny:)

_http://www.sacelectronics.co.uk/ProductList.aspx?Sub=55

I also believe Vision make similar products

Yes, use the F Type cable tester also. Must get round to getting the 8way cable mapper shown on the above link.

Great tools for cable identification.
 

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Thank you all!

Is it possible to use a small light bulb, batteries and a really long wire/cable to do the test? :-lmao

This was actually my initial plan...
 

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Don't need a long cable - battery at one end and bulb at the other. Make sure the other ends aren't shorted though.
 

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Yes. In that case I need to use both the copper core and the braided wires in the cable.
 

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I had an intermittent fault on a run of coax just last week so I hooked it up to a battery at one end and a bulb at the other and I managed to figure out where the lose connection was in the cable by watching the bulb flicker as I moved the cable at various points.
 

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Yes, use the F Type cable tester also. Must get round to getting the 8way cable mapper shown on the above link.

Great tools for cable identification.
Has anyone come across a toner that u can use the wand without unscrewing all the cables out of the switch? Say for tracing a cable to switch from sky + switch to sky Q?
 

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Has anyone come across a toner that u can use the wand without unscrewing all the cables out of the switch? Say for tracing a cable to switch from sky + switch to sky Q?
Wouldn't advise that approach as it would be potentially far too easy to get the tone appearing on the wrong cable if both are left connected to the box.

It's easy to disconnect the Sky cables to the box (best to mark which cable goes to which socket!) - all you need is an 11mm open-ended spanner, or a pair of pliars:
- disconnect the mains plug or power supply to the box
- gently unscrew the SKY cable connections on the box
- do an end-to-end test on each cable (you could use a simple tone tracer kit to do that)
- carefully refit the connections to the box (make sure the centre copper core wire of each cable is dead straight before you do that, and then make sure it is then pushed firmly into the centre of the socket on the box as you do up the nut on the cable connector)
- reconnect the mains supply to the box and restart it.
 

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Oi ! I'm supposed to do that :D

Depending on the age and quality of the cable installed, you might find distance markings on the outer covering, every metre or so. Knowing the overall distance of the end to the switch (25metres in the o/p's example) you could do a simple subtraction to find which is which in the majority of the bundle.
 
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