Affordable CAT6a certifier?

[oh2ftu]

This will most probably just be me blabbing a huge mess, but I'll let 'er rip anyway.

I've been doing my own CAT6a cabling runs at my home and some other places. Also, some fiber splices or readymade fibers.
I'd like to verify them to a wider extent than a basic pair-tester.

There's been a few auctions with either a Viavi/JDSU 40G certifier or a Fluke DTX-1800. But those all went way above my measly budget.

Mostly I need cat6a testing, but verifying single- and multimode (both 62,5 and 50) would be nice - even just at a power meter level.

Getting a power meter and light source from fs.com would set one back ~200 EUR, which ain't that bad for testing basic fiber connectivity. Including a VFL (I already have one) makes for a nice setup.

What's your take? I would rather spend under USD1000 including shipping, but that seems to be not possible.

What's on ebay is mostly Wirescope 350's, but these have been EOL for a LOONG time. Fluke's DTX-1800's go for 2-4k USD, but even these are EOL'd for some time now.

Is rental the only option?

[David Hess]

If I wanted the cheapest possible ghetto solution for 10GBASE-T testing of CAT6a cable, I would get a pair of 10GBASE-T interfaces, which might even be ports on the same switch, and connect them to the cable to be tested along with an extra length of CAT6A cable (25 to 50 meters?) spliced in using a female-female adapter.  The extra length of cable provides the testing margin.

[fordem]

If I wanted the cheapest possible ghetto solution for 10GBASE-T testing of CAT6a cable, I would get a pair of 10GBASE-T interfaces, which might even be ports on the same switch, and connect them to the cable to be tested along with an extra length of CAT6A cable (25 to 50 meters?) spliced in using a female-female adapter.  The extra length of cable provides the testing margin.

A number of years back the firm I was working with invested in a Fluke DSX - and just for the heck of it I ran a couple tests on a few short lengths of CAT5e cable, and I did one with two cables joined by an female-female adapter, whilst I no longer have the print out I can tell you that even at gigabit standards, the female-female adapters are crap - use them only if you have no other option and I'd rather grab a couple of keystone jacks and a few feet of cable and punch down my own female - female adapter, I can guarantee lower cross talk.