telcom test equipment

[electricalperson]

what kind of testers can i buy to test cat5, coax and other telcom things? i would like to test for shorts (i can do that with my meter), wiring problems, signal strength among other things. i dont know if they make an all in one tester but i jsut want to see what they make

 

[dereckbc]

Well you are talking about several meters to do all those things. Its is possible to make a meter or test set to do multiple functions, but the manufactures are pretty smart and therefore do not make an all-in-one meter to test all cable types. If they did it would be extremely expensive.

What is it you actually want to do? There are several good meters around to test for shorts, opens, and basic signal levels made by many different manufacures. If you are looking to certify say Cat-5E 100/1000 Mbs systems you are talking very big bucks of 4 to 5 digits.

 

[electricalperson]

Well you are talking about several meters to do all those things. Its is possible to make a meter or test set to do multiple functions, but the manufactures are pretty smart and therefore do not make an all-in-one meter to test all cable types. If they did it would be extremely expensive.

What is it you actually want to do? There are several good meters around to test for shorts, opens, and basic signal levels made by many different manufacures. If you are looking to certify say Cat-5E 100/1000 Mbs systems you are talking very big bucks of 4 to 5 digits.

well i would like to test cat5 cable after i run it and terminate it. not just testing to make sure the pairs are right but to make sure the signal is strong enough to give the customer the speed they want. i would like to do the same with coaxal cable for video for cameras and cable tv for peoples houses. right now im not to concerned with fiber optics since i want to get some training with that stuff first.

 

[Mr.Sparkle]

:smile:

Model # 33-856

Good price here

 

[electricalperson]

:smile:

Model # 33-856

Good price here

i seen that at home depot and almost bought it. does it do everything i need it to do?

 

[Mr.Sparkle]

Well it does everything I think you want except test signal strength, but in all honesty I would think that signal strength for the length of the runs in most homes would not really be an issue, I did a Cat5 / Coax job in a factory a few years ago where some of the runs were over 200 feet and we did not have any issues on that install with signal strength. Just my experience though, I am sure there are people that have more insight on this than me on the forum.

 

[charlietuna]

Good test equipment isn't cheap- but it does take the guess work out of every job to be able to certify your installation. Invest in good equipment!

 

[brantmacga]

i seen that at home depot and almost bought it. does it do everything i need it to do?

i have one of those.

its handy for tracing coax cables, and it checks for correct wiring on phone and ethernet cables. i use it just to make sure i have no breaks or shorts before the walls go up.

it does not test signal strength.

fluke makes a couple of meters for testing network speeds. a linkrunner model starts out around $1k, and the nettool meter goes for around $2500. that one is only for ethernet.