Microwave Link Design Tools

Microwave frequencies (typically between 1 and 100 GHz) travel by line of sight. Unlike lower frequencies, they do not diffract around obstructions such as hills or buildings and are severely attenuated by vegetation. Below are some useful tools for calculating link budget, Fresnel zone, and antenna placement.

• Ubiquiti Wireless Link Calculator
  • Basic link analysis with pull-down menus for Ubiquity radios.
• MikroTik Wireless Link Calculator
  • Basic link analysis for generic radios/antennas
• LigoWave Wireless Link Calculator
  • Basic PTP and PTMP link analysis with pull-down menu for LigoWave radios plus custom option.
• 3-D Fresnel Zone Calculator
  • Generates a KML file for viewing with Google Earth.
• N6MEF Antenna Placement Calculator (.xlsx - 14 kB)
  • Calculates several parameters of interest when mounting antennas. By Michael E. Fox, N6MEF
• WiFi Free Space Path Loss (PDF - 67 kB)
  • Table of free space path loss vs. distance for several bands. By Michael Fox, N6MEF, 24-Apr-2015
• HeyWhatsThat
  • Variety of tools to look at panoramas from a specific point, coverage from a specific point, and path profiles between two points, including first Fresnel zone.
• Radio Mobile
  • Full Longley-Rice propagation modeling software.  Can export path information to Google Earth to visualize line-of-site and Fresnel zone.
• Radio Mobile Online
  • A hosted version of Radio Mobile that avoids the need to install the full Radio Mobile application and all of the associated terrain data files
• TowerCoverage.com
  • Create propagation maps online