On Sat, 5 Dec 2009 20:30:48 -0800 (PST), Robert Macy
wrote:

Sorry, for jumping in here in the way of Jeff's capable hands,

Grumble...

but
agree with honing in on potential bad connections in that old coax.

There's a fairly easy way to detect bad connections. These invariably
result in coax leakage, where the coax cable magically becomes an
antenna. Find a portable TV receiver, tune it to CATV channels not
OTA (over the air) channels, and sniff around with the portable
antenna looking for leaks (actually called "ingress"). This is
roughly what the CATV people do along the distribution cables using a
pilot carrier. A broken shield, broken connector, and possbibly a
missing termination, should all show up as excessive leakage.

Personally, I prefer visual inspection, a TDR (time domain
reflectometer), signal level measurements, or just a pre-emptive
replacement.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558