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Old timer in Fresno showed me how to tone drop lines without a meter
He just used a coax stub and a 9V battery to find the right pair, blew my mind. Anyone else got legacy tricks that still beat the modern gear?
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the_robin24d agoMost Upvoted
18 years in the field and I still carry a 66 block and a buttset for tone. The digital stuff can't tell you if a line's got wet paper or a bad splice without you walking the whole damn route. The battery trick works because it's dead simple, the cable either passes DC or it doesn't. Modern testers give you too many numbers to chase, but an old toner will find a short in a buried drop faster than any TDR I've used.
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terry_jones23d ago
18 years and still old school, huh. That toner trick never lies, and that's why it wins.
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