How to find out which coax cable is coming from my aerial

Grimmi68

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Hi. I have no signal from a downstairs aerial wall point and have been up to the eaves of the house to try to sort this out. There are several coax cables up there with F-type connectors on them. I have a Labgear LDA2061LR up there and i thought i had to input and the outputs sorted out, but i had bought a klein tools coax tool, to check which cable went to the downstairs point, but none of them picked up the klein tools receiver, so obviously i have got the cables mixed up, up there. I have connected each cable to the TV and attempted to tune the TV in. None of the 5 or 6 cables got any signal, so I'm now not even sure that any of these cables are coming from the aerial. How can i determine which one is the aerial cable? There isn't a lot of room in the eaves and my arthritis limits how much movement i have up there (plus there's "stuff" in storage up there) so it's not easy to see which ones are routed outside (and we have cables coming from an old sky installation, too, to confuse things. So, I'm hoping there's a way to plug something on to each f connector that will tell me when there's an aerial signal, so i can then know i have the correct input cable. Can anyone point me in the right direction to solve this please?

Regards, Mark
 
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Something like this?

Amazon product ASIN B002L1YPVGYou can also get cheaper ones with analogue meters but I suggested this one as it's a known brand.
 
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Fringe do similar items that are very good: Signal Finders including ones that can do satellite as well as UHF aerial signals in the one device.

{In fact, though these meters show the presence of RF signals in the band they cover and could show direct cable pickup as well as from an aerial. One would hope the aerial gives a definitively higher reading, but if the aerial and/or its cable is faulty or damaged..... }

I suggest you should first concentrate on identifying the cables to the rooms using the Klein tool rather than spending more on further test kit. Assuming it's something like this one:

Use that on a scrap length of coax and introduce 'faults' (short inner to outer, open circuit) to prove it works (and you know how it works)... The idea of those resistors colour coded is that it'll identify multiple cables quickly...

Paying a professional aerial installer to sort out the issues properly may be necessary?
 
I'd have carried a small LCD TV into the loft in order to identify the aerial cable but that tester looks a bit easier ! Obviously neither will be much use if there's a fault with the aerial or coax externally, but you've got to start somewhere.

Do yourself a favour and once you work out which cable is which, make sure you label them. I use a light-coloured electrician's tape (wrapped around tightly a few times) and a permanent black marker.
 

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