The cable fault tester under UHV power can help many power workers conduct various power tests more conveniently.
Why does the wave generator of the cable fault locator use audio instead of other frequencies?
There are several reasons for using relatively low frequencies.
Most cable analyzers use long cables, which may be kilometers or longer. At high frequencies, the attenuation becomes worse with distance. If you want to use pulses with frequency components in the 100MHz range, on most cables, you will not get any significant reflections exceeding a few hundred feet.
Other reasons are that it is cheaper, easier to build, and can use less electricity.
There is no reason to use a frequency higher than that required to provide the required information on the cable. For cable testers, you would like to know the length and approximate location of the fault. If you want to find the fault within one meter, you need megahertz data. If you only need to know the frequency within 10 meters, you can go through one tenth of the frequency.
For people like us who perform signal quality analysis on circuit boards and cable connectors at GHz rates, you need very fast signals, path lengths less than one meter, and you need to locate faults to a few millimeters. The demand for cable TV or power grid cables varies in magnitude.
