What are the 4 types of coaxial cable?

What are the 4 types of coaxial cable?

Coaxial cable is one of those quiet, unglamorous technologies that the modern world absolutely cannot live without. It snakes through walls to bring broadband internet into homes, it carries high-frequency signals from antennas to radios, and it links surveillance cameras to their recorders. But stroll down the cable aisle of any electronics supplier, and you’ll quickly realize that “coax” isn’t a single species. There are fat cables, thin cables, cables rated for burial, cables that promise ultra-low loss, and a bewildering alphabet soup of RG numbers stamped on the jacket.

If you cut through the marketing clutter and look at how coax is actually deployed in the real world, four distinct types emerge as the heavy hitters. They aren’t just random model numbers; each is engineered for a specific impedance, signal frequency, and distance. Understanding these four will cover the vast majority of installations you’ll ever encounter, whether you’re wiring a home theater, a radio shack, or an industrial CCTV system.

**1. RG-6: The Broadband Workhorse**

If you’ve ever plugged in a cable modem or a satellite TV receiver, you’ve handled RG-6. It’s the dominant coax type for residential and commercial broadband, satellite TV, and digital cable. With a characteristic impedance of 75 ohms, an 18 AWG solid copper or copper-clad steel center conductor, a foam polyethylene dielectric, and typically a quad-shield construction, RG-6 is built to carry high-frequency signals — well into the gigahertz range — over moderate distances with minimal loss.

What makes RG-6 so popular is its balance between signal attenuation and flexibility. It can reliably carry a satellite signal from a dish to a set-top box 150 feet away without needing an amplifier. The dual or quad shielding — alternating layers of aluminum foil and braided wire — provides excellent immunity to electromagnetic interference, which is essential in a world increasingly choked with Wi‑Fi, cellular, and Bluetooth signals. You’ll see RG-6 terminated with F-type connectors, the familiar screw-on plugs that spin onto the back of a modem, TV, or wall plate.

In short, RG-6 is the default choice for video distribution and broadband data. If you’re running coax in a modern home, you’re almost certainly reaching for a spool of RG-6.

**2. RG-59: The Legacy Video Staple**

Look closely at an older CCTV camera installation or a vintage analog TV hookup, and you’ll spot RG-59. It’s the thinner, more flexible cousin of RG-6, also designed for 75-ohm impedance but with a smaller 20 AWG center conductor. The reduced conductor diameter means higher signal loss per meter, especially at higher frequencies, so RG-59 isn’t the cable you want for distributing satellite feeds or gigabit-speed broadband over long hauls.

But RG-59 shines in short-distance, low-frequency applications where its flexibility and smaller bend radius are assets. Closed-circuit television cameras, analog video patch panels, and some component video setups historically relied on RG-59. It’s easier to snake through tight conduits and behind crowded equipment racks. Many installers still prefer it for baseband video runs under 100 feet, where the attenuation penalty barely registers and the installation convenience pays off. It also comes with a stranded center conductor option in some variants, making it more tolerant to repeated flexing — a real advantage in temporary production environments like television studios and live event rigging.

Just don’t mistake it for a replacement for RG-6 in high-bandwidth applications. If you try to feed a satellite signal through a 200-foot RG-59 run, your receiver won’t lock on. Use it for what it’s good at: short, clean analog video connections and legacy camera systems.

**3. RG-11: The Long-Distance Champion**

When distance stretches beyond what RG-6 can handle, RG-11 enters the conversation. This is the thick, heavy-duty coaxial cable with a 14 AWG center conductor — substantially thicker than both RG-6 and RG-59 — and it’s still a 75-ohm cable. That beefy conductor translates into dramatically lower attenuation. A signal that would be hopelessly degraded after 300 feet of RG-6 can travel twice that distance or more on RG-11 with acceptable loss, making it the cable of choice for long outdoor drops from a satellite dish, a main trunk line feeding an apartment building, or a connection between two buildings on a campus.

The trade-offs are weight, stiffness, and cost. RG-11 is difficult to bend, a pain to pull through narrow conduit, and noticeably more expensive per foot. Its connectors are larger and often require specialized crimping tools. It’s not a general-purpose cable; you don’t wire every room of a house with RG-11. Instead, it’s deployed strategically on the long backbone runs, transitioning to RG-6 for the final leg into each living room or office. In underground burial scenarios, RG-11 is often ordered with a flooded jacket — a gel-filled design that prevents moisture migration — giving it additional environmental toughness.

Think of RG-11 as the fiber optic of the coax world: reserved for the long haul, absolutely brilliant when needed, and overkill everywhere else.

**4. RG-58: The RF and Data Specialist**

The previous three types all live in the 75-ohm video and broadband ecosystem. RG-58 breaks away entirely. It’s a 50-ohm cable, designed not for television signals but for radio frequency transmission, early Ethernet networking, and general-purpose RF test leads. Radio amateurs know RG-58 intimately — it’s the thin, flexible coax that links a transceiver to an antenna on many a ham radio setup. Old-timers will recognize it as the backbone of 10BASE2 “ThinNet” Ethernet, the era when office networks ran on daisy-chained coax rather than twisted-pair switches.

With a smaller 20 AWG stranded or solid center conductor, RG-58 is highly flexible and easy to route around equipment racks, but its 50-ohm impedance is non-negotiable for the systems it serves. Mismatching a 75-ohm cable to a 50-ohm antenna system creates standing waves that rob power and can damage transmitters. RG-58 sacrifices distance for that RF compatibility; it has significantly higher attenuation than RG-6 at the same frequencies, which limits its effective length in high-power or microwave applications. In modern networks, it’s rare to see RG-58 outside of radio rooms, lab bench setups, and some specialized industrial control loops. But in those domains, it remains essential — and it’s the one type on this list you absolutely cannot swap with the others without causing impedance mismatch headaches.

**So, Which Type Should You Choose?**

The four types — RG-6, RG-59, RG-11, and RG-58 — represent the core toolkit, but the selection boils down to three simple questions.

First, what is the impedance? If you’re working with video, CATV, satellite, or broadband internet, you need 75 ohms, which eliminates RG-58. Second, how far is the run? Short runs under 100 feet at moderate frequencies can often use RG-59 or RG-6. Long runs, especially for satellite or high-frequency signals, push you toward RG-11. Third, what’s the environment? Indoors in a climate-controlled rack, any of these will thrive. Outdoors, buried, or snaking through an engine compartment, you need to check the jacket rating, shielding count, and whether a flooded or plenum-rated version is required.

It’s worth noting that this isn’t a definitive catalog of every coax ever made. There are 50-ohm workhorses like RG-213 and LMR-400 that outperform RG-58 on longer radio runs. There are semi-rigid hardline cables for cell tower connections, and miniature coax for tightly packed aerospace harnesses. But these are specialized outliers. The four types discussed here are the ones you’ll actually touch, cut, and crimp in the real world of residential, commercial, and light industrial installations.

When you understand why RG-6, RG-59, RG-11, and RG-58 exist — each with its own impedance, attenuation profile, and physical personality — the cable aisle stops being an alphabet soup and starts looking like a carefully stocked toolbox. Grab the right one for the job, terminate it correctly, and it will carry your signal faithfully for decades. That’s the quiet beauty of coaxial cable, a technology that refuses to become obsolete.