Tektronix 1502C · 1503C
Metallic Cable Testers, Refurbished

• Distance to faults
• Cable Propagation velocity
• Loss and load mismatch
• Quantification of damage from opens, shorts, frays, crimps and water
• Faulty taps and unterminated lines in LAN and CATV environments
• Stripline and Cable Impedance
• Characterizing LAN installations

Options:

• 03-Internal Battery
• 04-YT-1 Chart Recorder
• 05-Metric Version
• 06-Ethernet Testing (1503 only)
• 08-Token Ring Adapter
• 09-USOC Adapter (1503 only)
• 10-Token Ring Interface

Tektronix 1503C Shown
 

Product Information
Common Characteristics	HTML
TDR Characteristics	HTML
Ordering Info

The portable, rugged 1502C and 1503C TDR Cable Testers are portable maintenance tools that are simple to operate and will test most dual conductor metallic cables under virtually any condition.  A high-contrast LCD, waveform storage, and PC controllability make the 1502C and 1503C TDRs well-suited for a wide range of testing applications.  The 1500C Series uses TDR to identify and locate cable faults.  When the instrument is connected to the line to be tested it sends out electrical pulses that are reflected back to the tester by impedance changes in the cable as a function of distance.  Moving the cursor to the displayed fault produces an onscreen readout of distance to the fault.

1502C High Resolution MDTR

The 1502C transmits 200 ps rise time step pulses down the cable under test.  The reflected energy is displayed on the LCD and the user can then determine the type of fault.  When testing 50 ohm cable with a velocity of propagation equal to 0.66, the 1502C Metallic TDR allows the determination of 0.5 ohm cable faults.  Multiple faults as close together as 0.6 inches can be resolved.
The 1502C has a menu selectable ohms-at-cursor function that allows direct readout of impedances.  The 1502C is matched to 50 ohm cables, but may be used on others by adjusting the front panel vertical scale control or using optional impedance adapters.
The 1502C has a maximum range of 2000 feet and is the best MTDR for high resolution fault location on short lengths of cable.

1503C General Purpose MDTR

The 1503C MTDR generates high-energy, 1/2-sine shaped pulses for testing long cable runs.  The 1503C has 2, 10, 100 and 1000 nanosecond pulse widths.  Use of the 2 ns pulse width permits determination of multiple faults as close together as one foot.  Cable impedances of 50, 75, 93, and 125 ohms are selectable at the front panel.  The 1503C is input protected to 400 volts.
The 1503C has a range of up to 50,000 feet and is the best metallic TDR for general purpose applications.

1503C Option 06 for Ethernet Testing

The 1503C with Option 06 allows TDR testing of an active Ethernet bus.  Tests are provided for detecting transceivers that ignore the collusion signal (babbling transceivers) and transceivers that ignore the carrier signal.

Menu Selections

The 1502C and 1503C offer menus to access a variety of parameters and information.  The main menu gives you access to Help Screens; Velocity of Propagation Values; Impedances of Different Cables; Instrument/Front Panel Configurations; and Instrument Diagnostics.

YT-1 Chart Recorder

For permanent records of cable tests, the Option 04 (YT-1) chart recorder is available for both the 1502C and 1503C.