Help identifying which co-ax cable goes to which tv socket

[greyhair]

I have a new house with 10 loose co-axial loose ends at a central point in the loft. These lead to 10 TV wall sockets in various rooms in the house. The cables cannot be physically traced through the restricted loft space.
How can I identify which cable goes to which room socket? 2 pairs of cables have been put in to facilitate Sky plus in two different rooms, the remaining 6 are for standard digital tv. The cables are all the same so no clues there. Any ideas?

 

[rjm2k]

Disconnect everything, one cable at a time short the inner core with the outer and use a multimeter to test for continuity at the other ends

 

[ChrisFrost]

Attach a AA battery (core to +ve, braid to -ve) at the room end, then go to the loft, take a multimeter with you, and see which shows a voltage.

 

[greyhair]

Thanks for the ideas. In my mind I thought about connecting each cable in the loft, one at a time, to an aerial, then take a telly around each socket until I got a pictue. I don't fancy taking the connections loose at every wall socket and I'd have to buy a multimeter. I've got to buy an aerial and i assume fit ends to the cables in the loft. Which method would be quicker?

 

[ChrisFrost]

Thanks for the ideas. In my mind I thought about connecting each cable in the loft, one at a time, to an aerial, then take a telly around each socket until I got a pictue. I don't fancy taking the connections loose at every wall socket and I'd have to buy a multimeter. I've got to buy an aerial and i assume fit ends to the cables in the loft. Which method would be quicker?

Either the battery or the short can be achieved pretty quickly with a plug, a little cable and the appropriate short/battery end. The short is probably easier and it avoids any issues of DC blocking if you already have diplex/triplex wall plates fitted.

Buying a multimeter is cheaper than replacing a TV dropped accidentally. But really, if you have decided a method then it's all academic. Just go with what you planned to do. You're only doing 10 cables.

 

[Pigeon85]

Go with what you already planned, get someone to go around with the tv so you don't have to keep going up and down the loft

 

[Sam Gangee]

Professional cable checkers are available but only worth buying if you have a LOT of cables to check.

http://www.satcure.co.uk/accs/page6.htm#cabtest

Frankly, it was very lazy and unprofessional of the installer not to label the cables. It would make me suspect that he also probably used the cheapest cable available. Let's hope at least that it's double-screened.

See http://www.glodark.com/cable.htm