Thank you for saving my day, this made figuring stuff out with my birds nest so much faster.

I have 15 years of experience in electrical and NEVER knew about the tin foil trick. I just used this in my mom's house to identify a coaxial cable in her living room, and it worked perfectly. Thank you!

Genius way of keeping it simple! A low-tech solution to a high-tech problem.

Just used your method and figured out my issues in less than 5 minutes. Four minutes was spent walking up and down my stairs. LOL Thank you!

Sometimes the least technological method is the easiest and the cheapest. Great job!!

I have no words man how simple a trick this is and yet my smooth brain could have never imagined it. Thank you so much for sharing this buddy!

I was a CATV contractor back in the day, late 80's - early 90's. This is what we used when coming to a large prewired facility, home and/or apartment building with zero identification of the cabling. We took a green LED, inserted the positive (+) lead into an F-81 barrel connector and the negative (-) lead shortened and placed it touching the outside of the connector. Then inserted the LED inside of an RG-6 connector where the dielectric typically resides. Lastly, a short piece of coax cable, a 9-volt battery with the braid connected to the neg (-) of a 9V battery harness , and the stinger (center conductor) of the cable to the pos (+) of the battery harness. Tape the battery to the cable neatly with electrical tape and secure the connections and wrap with tape. Finally, terminate a coax connector to the other end. You then take the battery end of your new tool, snap the battery harness connector to the battery, screw into any faceplate. Then go to the head end and start inserting the unmarked cables into the F-81 end of your new tool. When you select the line with the 9V, the LED lights up.

This is so simple yet so smart thank you for this I just got a house and there is so many coaxial cables in here and it’s too hot to go up in the attic this makes it so much easier to see what cables are actually outside for internet

Wow, how ingenious! Three Years ago we moved into a large two story house. I believe that a coaxial cable runs from where a tv antenna use to be, to our television in our TV Room. Now I know how to test the continuity of the coaxial cable. I will have to go into the attic when colder weather arrives in South Texas. Thank you!

This worked like a charm! I have 9 cables going into a box outside and only need 1 connected, and this helped save me a ton of time. Thank you so much for making this video!!

0:57 I freaked out I was alone at home and thought this was coming from inside the house😂😂😂

Thank you for saving me from purchasing a coaxial tester! You the real MVP!

You can also determine the length and integrity of the outlet by using a 75ohm terminator instead of the aluminum foil. A 100’ outlet will read 79ohms as RG6 picks up roughly 1 ohm per 25’ of coaxial cable length.

Nice tip using aluminum foil to cause the short circuit (closed loop) to test for continuity. I'll have to try this on my various cables thru the house...

Wow! I was thinking maybe a AA battery and use multimeter and gauge voltage which maybe wasn’t the best idea and found your video and so glad I did! Makes so much sense, thank you for the video, worked perfect and mapped all 12 coaxial is in my house, saved me $80 from the cable company coming to look at lines in house.

Perfect! Didn't want to buy a tool I would only use once.

Worked to identify coax cables from 1970 in my house. Thank you!

This was unbelievably helpful. Thank you.

This is an excellent video! Very handy trick. I'm going to send this video to the cable guy who keeps running cables all over the neighborhood outside from the utility box into/across people's yards into their living rooms cause the utility box is a rats nest.

I would first test to see if any are shorted before doing the test.

Now I have a use for tin foil other than hats. Thanks!

Thanks awesome info I'm going to use this method in my RV.

The foil trick is what I was looking for. Now I can proceed with the MoCA setup. Thank you!

You’re a genius!!! This saved me hours of hassle. Thanks!

This was a great, clear, concise video that solved my problem. Thank you!

I'm going to have to give this a try. Thanks! Although coax won't be too pertinent anymore at my house since I just got fiber installed, I'm still going to map out the coax runs just in case.

Excellent idea, I was dreading having to buy a special tool. Thanks for saving me some $$!

This really helped me, thank you!👌

Good job! When the Cable company came over and hooked me up cable service through my router and modem (using smart TVs) I had a cable connection in every room and they all worked. I had just bought the house and the inspectors checked them. I also had a multiple connector amplifier in my attic where all the cables converged and connected. I even had cable out to my pool area. I could have a tv in any room I wanted. The cable guy CUT all of my cables in the attic. He went to the wall jacks and cut the cables and removed the connectors so there were just holes. He took the amplifier with him when he left. I got crappy service with the cable company and they kept raising the prices every few months. So I bought a large digital antenna. I live in an area where you can get about 25 channels for free via antenna. However, all the cable ends will now have to be repaired and I will have to map all of those cables. You just made the job tenable.

Yeah, outstanding vid, delivery, job in general.

Awesome and simple trick just answered my question! Clear and concise video!! Good job!

You the Man, thanks for the tip!

Brilliant! You saved me big time. Thanks!!

Thank you so much!!! This was so simple, and I already own a couple of multimeters.

I just bought me a Channel Master Antenna w/the Mounting Pole, Mounting Bracket & the Amplifier, so tomorrow I will try to do the cable tracing. Thank You for your Video.

Yes, tx. Will use this to sort all these cables that era giving a crazy headache !

Yesssss!! Never even thought about the ball of aluminum foil..1/2 way thru finding/labeling all of mine!

Thanks you just saved me 50 bucks....I was all set to buy an ADM

Wow! I didn't know ANYTHING about cable let alone how 2 do this!! Thank you for 5 sharing this video

Thanks I was going to use a jumper wire with alligator clips but I think the aluminum ball will be a lot easier

Thanks for the info! Appreciate people like you on KZfaq that guide us thru situation like this one!

Brah you saved me $20 🤙

This is the genius hack I've been looking for. Thank you 👍👍👍

Smart idea... worked slick!

Dude fantastic! 🔥 Edit, worked like a charm!

Thank you for this very super useful video

Thank you great video. Been trying to figure this out for a long time 👍

Thank you so much.

Just did this and it worked perfectly! Thank you

Very smart trick 😅

Very clever. Thank you!

Worked great! Thanks a lot!

Thank you! Great video! Saved my butt trying to map RG6 cable in my motorcoach

Dude. Great job. Thank you so much for something so easy.

This is clutch. Thank you!

this is exactly what I was looking for! thanks!

Thank you

I just bought a house that I'm pretty sure has at least 30 coax cables running through it - for TVs I guess? Not sure why some rooms need 2, 3 or 4 connectors but this little trick will help me know how to start pulling them out - thanks!

Brilliantly made video helped me so much, thank you.👍

Hey, thanks for this. The tin foil method didnt work for me, but gave me another idea. I had some crocodile clip leads so attached those to a AA battery on one end, then used my meter to measure voltage on the other end. This worked for me.

Great idea

Low drag high speed. 👍

Great video - exact info i needed.

I am so glad I found this. Now that I know which cables lead where, does anyone have advice on selecting an amplifier? When I tested with an HDHomeRun/antenna instead of using this method, it couldn't find any channels at all. The Mohu amp I had laying around didn't do squat either. Is this a different type of amplifier? $50 Televes Distribution something something? TIA

👏👏👏You *just won yourself a new subscriber👏👏👏👍

Great video...this should solve my problem

Incredible!

Thanks, this method was super helpful

Super helpful. Ty

Thank you for this all the issues bought has had four different satellite TV services the correct have been cut and who knows what else😔 I noticed where my heating unit is there is a splitter thingy that has to cables going somewhere but nothing running into it. I’m hoping your Handy dandy video solves The mystery so I can plug in my TV Antenna :)

Great video

RG6U 75 ohm TV cable has a steel center conductor that is copper coated it's not solid copper.. Now this trick will help you trace down lines to their destinations but it will not show you if the cable is compromised which will affect things like internet service to a modem. Chances are the cables will be fine thopugh but if you have any issues with signal quality then you may need to replace that run or move your equipment to a different jack

I'm going to try this tomorrow. Thanks!

Very simple and helpful. Thankyou

Brilliant! I have some work to do. Thanks.

Great video Sir.

very helpful, thank you.

It is one of the best Wey Thank you

Thank you!

I’m wondering if a barrel connector could be a substitute for the foil?

Instead of aluminum foil, just use alligator clips. One clip to the outer connector, and the other on the stinger(copper pin).

The cable shown @ the 3:32 mark was incorrectly prepped. There shouldn't be any shielding sticking out from the connector. Home Depot and Lowes sell tools that can strip the proper amounts of the different layers to make a solid connection. Compression and crimp connectors are preferred over twist-on. 🙂

This is great, but it doesn't really trace anything. I need to know the routing behind the wall.

Thank you, very useful

What if you only have a wire no that would go directly into a tv? There’s no coax plate on the wall or anything??

Amazing. Worked!

Smart👍

If the cable doesn't have the cap i can put one connector on the mesh and another on the copper wire ? and if it has signal on it i should get the beep?

Sweet thanks!

Anyone have any other tricks to substitute tin foil? Just curious

my multimeter does not beep. Any hints?

How about this, connect it to your tv & if you get a signal it works.

Help! I have 11 coax to various places over 3 stories and one feed coax from fios ont. all but 3 have tone?! I places 3 foil balls as you showed, one on each floor??? Could my coax network be opposite, where 3 with foil get no tone and all others without do get tone?!?!? Help

"Shorting the conductors"

Where can I get tin foil? (they quit making it in 1968)

Does that still work if there a splitter on it from your starting point to the end point?

Could I use a multimeter to find the main coax cable ? We just moved into a new house and we have a ton of disconnected cables and I’m not even sure what the main cable is to connect to the splitter

Can I use multimeter to see if the ethernet cable on 1 end links to the coaxial on the other end, I think there is a convertor adapter connecting both of them or else it is split to merge them for PoE except to coaxial - it is an old camera system and I fluked it but can't find the ethernet connection. And on old DVR cameras mostly is coaxial and wondering if this trick would work or another idea would work.

Will this method work if there is a splitter between the two ends?

If you don't have a coaxial connector on one end of coaxial cable can you tape a ball of aluminum foil to that end so that it attempts to touch the center connector and metal mesh?