I'm bidding on a master CATV system, and would like to test the signal strength when it's completed. What kind of tester am I looking for? Where do I get one?

Dave

You need a signal level meter not a tester. Used to be a few good manufacturers but because of mergers and going out of business over the years the one left that I would recommend is Sadelco. The model 2000 should handle whatever you are going to do.
http://www.sadelco.com/dmaxjrspec.htm

-Hal

By the way give a holler if you don't understand something. This kind of work is going to be a lot different than what you may be used to.



[This message has been edited by hbiss (edited 04-14-2005).]

Hal,
Yeah I agree there, even using a field strength meter took a bit of getting used to for a start.

I did some work for HP a few years ago designing just such a device. HP is of course Agilent now. The division that makes the cable test gear was the Callan division at that time; I don't know if the name has changed or not.

These gadgets were handheld testers that pretty much measured all the parameters on each signal--the signal strength of each carrier, of the audio subcarriers, it measured the exact carrier frequencies (IIRC we had a <10 ppm frequency reference in those things), and a few other things that it's been too long ago to recall. I'm sure the current version of one of these units would do the job for you quite nicely.

Hmmm, never heard of Callan, certainly heard of HP and Agilent though. Wavetek, Sadelco and Avantek were the names associated with installer meters and field test. HP now Agilent made mostly high end gear not really suited for the specialized CATV industry. We did have an HP spectrum analyzer and a TDR which of course were top notch.

The only one left that makes this gear is Sadelco although Sencore and maybe a couple of others are new to the market. I have no experience wit them but Sencore looks pretty good too.

-Hal

I appreciate the information gentlemen. What's different about it?

Dave