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Remember when we used to fish coax with a tape measure and a prayer?

I started doing cable work in the late 90s in Phoenix. We'd run RG6 through attics and just hope we had enough slack. No toner, no fancy tester. Just a 25 foot tape and a flashlight. Now I got a whole kit with a signal meter and a tracer that beeps. Got my first Fluke meter about 5 years ago and it changed everything. But I still catch myself eyeballing a run sometimes. Anyone else still use the old methods out of habit?
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3 Comments
hannahcraig
hannahcraig16d agoMost Upvoted
Showed up to a job last week and realized my tracer was dead. Spent 20 minutes in some attic licking my fingers and touching wires like some kind of cable shaman. Got the run done but felt like a complete idiot when my apprentice showed me the spare batteries in my own bag.
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patricia32
patricia3216d ago
Ate my pride and did the same thing last month but with a tone generator. Crawled under a house for 45 minutes with my tongue on coax ends before my guy calls down "hey boss you know the toner works on batteries right?" Pulled six fresh ones out of my vest pocket. Felt like I earned a Darwin Award for cable guys. Now I check for batteries before I check for anything else.
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the_viola
the_viola16d agoMost Upvoted
I still tape a 100-foot piece of string to my fish tape for long runs.
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