Find the right coaxial cable for a run. Enter the frequency, length, transmit power and installation constraints, and get the manufacturer cables that meet them, ranked by loss, then power margin.
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Walkthrough
The lowest loss cable that meets your constraints shows its loss, power margin, VSWR and size, with the reasons it leads and any warnings.
Every cable in the library is listed, the passing ones by loss. Cables that fail a constraint appear below the passing ones with the reason, and selecting any row shows its datasheet details.
Search the library by manufacturer or model. If a cable is missing, upload its datasheet for review before it is added to the shared library.
Frequency, length and transmit power for the run.
Overview
There are far more coaxial cable types in service than any engineer can keep in their head, from thin flexible jumpers to large corrugated feeders and phase-stable test leads. Each suits some jobs and not others, and the wrong choice costs power budget, reliability or money. Comparing datasheets by hand for every run is slow.
The Coaxial Cable Selector does that comparison for you. Enter the operating frequency, the run length and the transmit power, then add the constraints that apply: impedance, the connectors you can terminate, the installation environment, and how flexible the cable must be. The tool works out each cable's loss and power rating at your frequency from its datasheet curves, removes the cables that fail a constraint, and ranks the rest.
The result is the lowest loss cable that meets every constraint, with the reasons it leads, and warnings that matter in practice, such as connector frequency limits, bend radius, loss ahead of a receiver, or a jacket with no outdoor rating. Cables that were filtered out stay visible with the reason, so you can see which single constraint to relax.
The library holds coaxial cables from manufacturers such as Times Microwave, CommScope, RFS and HUBER+SUHNER. Each entry carries the datasheet attenuation, power handling and VSWR curves along with construction, jacket, shielding, temperature and connector details.
Attenuation, power handling and VSWR are interpolated between datasheet points on a log-log axis, which follows the shape of coaxial loss curves closely. The attenuation at your frequency is scaled by the run length to give the total loss.
Cables are filtered by impedance, required connectors, installation environment, flexibility class, maximum loss, maximum VSWR, shielding effectiveness, temperature range and water-ingress rating. Power is checked against the datasheet rating at your frequency.
Passing cables are ranked by loss at your frequency and length, lowest first, then by power margin. Cables that fail are listed below them with the constraint they failed, so the trade-off of relaxing a constraint is easy to see.
The lowest loss cable that meets your constraints comes with a short explanation of why it leads, and practical warnings flag issues such as connector frequency limits, bend radius and receive system loss.
The best three cables are compared on loss, power rating, margin, VSWR, shielding, dimensions and temperature range. A table of loss per 100 m at a set of common frequencies shows how they compare across bands.
If a cable you need is not in the library, you can upload the manufacturer datasheet. Submissions are reviewed before they are added to the shared library.
Inputs and outputs
Inputs 11
Outputs 9
Use cases
Cables that fail any constraint are set aside first. The rest are ranked by their loss for the run at your frequency, lowest first, with power margin above the transmit power as the tie-breaker. A transmit power above the cable's datasheet rating is always a fail. There is no cost ranking: datasheets give no prices.
Coaxial attenuation is dominated by conductor loss, which rises with the square root of frequency, plus a dielectric term that rises in proportion to frequency. On a log-log axis the combined curve is close to straight between datasheet points, so interpolating in log space follows the published curve far better than interpolating on a linear axis.
No. The selector uses the datasheet rating, which holds at the manufacturer's reference ambient temperature. Sun on the jacket, higher ambient temperatures and poor heat dissipation in the ground all reduce the power a cable can carry, so apply the manufacturer's derating for your site before you commit.
Filtered cables stay in the ranked list below the passing ones, with the constraint they failed. This shows whether relaxing one constraint, such as a connector type or a VSWR limit, would make a much better cable available.
Upload the manufacturer datasheet along with your email, the manufacturer and the model. Submissions are reviewed for accuracy before they are added to the shared library.
The ranking runs in your browser and your inputs are remembered locally between sessions. The cable library is loaded from the noIM₃ catalogue, and a datasheet is only sent to noIM₃ when you choose to submit one.
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