RG-58/U is a type of

coaxial cable Coaxial cable, or coax (pronounced ) is a type of electrical cable consisting of an inner conductor surrounded by a concentric conducting shield, with the two separated by a dielectric ( insulating material); many coaxial cables also have a p ...

often used for low-power signal and RF connections. The cable has a

characteristic impedance The characteristic impedance or surge impedance (usually written Z0) of a uniform transmission line is the ratio of the amplitudes of voltage and current of a single wave propagating along the line; that is, a wave travelling in one direction i ...

of either 50 or 52 Ω. "RG" was originally a unit indicator for bulk RF cable in the U.S. military's

Joint Electronics Type Designation System The Joint Electronics Type Designation System (JETDS), which was previously known as the Joint Army-Navy Nomenclature System (AN System. JAN) and the Joint Communications-Electronics Nomenclature System, is a method developed by the U.S. War Depa ...

. There are several versions covering the differences in core material (solid or braided wire) and shield (70% to 95% coverage). The outside diameter of RG-58 is around 0.2 inches (5 mm). RG-58 weighs around 0.025 lb/ft (37 g/m), exhibits approximately 25 pF/ft (82 pF/m) capacitance and can tolerate a maximum of 300 V potential (1800 W). Plain RG-58 cable has a solid center conductor. The RG-58A/U features a flexible 7- or 19-strand center conductor. Most

two-way radio A two-way radio is a radio that can both transmit and receive radio waves (a transceiver), unlike a radio broadcasting, broadcast receiver which only receives content. It is an audio (sound) transceiver, a transmitter and radio receiver, receive ...

communication systems, such as marine,

CB radio Citizens band radio (also known as CB radio), used in many countries, is a land mobile radio system, a system allowing short-distance person-to-many persons bidirectional voice communication among individuals, using two way radios operating on ...

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, self-taught, user-generated, DIY, and hobbyist. History ...

, police, fire,

WLAN A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a wireless computer network that links two or more devices using wireless communication to form a local area network (LAN) within a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, campus, or office buildin ...

antennas etc., are designed to work with a 50 Ω cable. RG-58 cable is often used as a generic carrier of signals in laboratories, combined with

BNC connector The BNC connector (initialism of "Bayonet Neill–Concelman") is a miniature quick connect/disconnect radio frequency connector used for coaxial cable. It is designed to maintain the same characteristic impedance of the cable, with 50 ohm and 7 ...

s that are common on test and measurement equipment such as

oscilloscope An oscilloscope (informally a scope) is a type of electronic test instrument that graphically displays varying electrical voltages as a two-dimensional plot of one or more signals as a function of time. The main purposes are to display repetiti ...

s. RG-58 in versions RG-58A/U or RG-58C/U was once widely used in "thin"

Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 1 ...

(

10BASE2 10BASE2 (also known as cheapernet, thin Ethernet, thinnet, and thinwire) is a variant of Ethernet that uses thin coaxial cable terminated with BNC connectors to build a local area network. During the mid to late 1980s this was the domin ...

), for which it provides a maximum segment length of 185 meters. However, it has been almost completely replaced by twisted-pair cabling such as Cat 5, Cat 6, and similar cables in data networking applications. RG-58 cable can be used for moderately high frequencies. Its signal attenuation depends on the frequency, e.g. from 10.8 dB per 100 m (3.3 dB per 100 feet) at 50 MHz to 70.5 dB per 100 m (21.5 dB per 100 feet) at 1 GHz.Coaxial Cable Loss and Dynamics
by Benton County ARES/RACES. Archived from the original on 20 Feb. 2020

References

Signal cables Transmission lines {{Electron-stub

See also

References