What Is a Coax Cable? How Coaxial Cable Works, Types & Uses

A coax, or coaxial, cable is an electrical cable that carries high-frequency signals, including RF for TV, cable internet, radio and GPS, as well as baseband video through a copper center conductor surrounded by an insulating layer, a metal shield and an outer jacket. All four layers share one center axis, which is where the name comes from.

Parts of a Coaxial Cable

• Center conductor: A metal center conductor, usually copper or copper-clad.
• Dielectric: Foam or solid polyethylene, or PTFE. It keeps the conductor centered, and its material and geometry set the impedance and affect loss and signal speed.
• Shield: Foil, braid or both. It acts as the return path and blocks electromagnetic interference (EMI).
• Jacket: PVC, black UV-stabilized PE for outdoor use, or FEP for high heat. In the U.S., NEC ratings include CATV/CM (general), CATVR/CMR (riser) and CATVP/CMP (plenum).

How Does a Coax Cable Work?

Coax is a transmission line. The signal travels as an electromagnetic field in the dielectric between the center conductor and the shield, so the shield keeps it contained. Signal loss, or attenuation, increases with length and frequency. Thick cable like RG-11 loses less over a long run than thin cable like RG-59, which gives up some performance for flexibility and size.

Common Types of Coaxial Cable

The designation “RG” is commonly said to come from the U.S. military’s ‘Radio Guide’ designation. Today it’s a loose label, so two RG-6 cables from different brands can perform differently. Always check the datasheet.

• RG-6 (75 Ohm): Home cable TV, internet and satellite
• RG-59 (75 Ohm): Short video and CCTV runs
• RG-58 (50 Ohm): Radio and test equipment
• RG-174 / RG-316 (50 Ohm): Thin jumpers and GPS leads. RG-316 uses PTFE for high temperatures.
• Micro coax: Very small diameters for medical probes, cameras and aerospace electronics. See micro coax assemblies.
• Twinax and triax: While these are not technically the same as coaxial cables with their additional features, they are closely related. Twinax has two inner conductors in one shield. Triax adds a second insulated shield for better isolation.

Common Coax Connectors

You’ll see F-type on TVs and modems, BNC on video and test equipment, N-type on antennas and base stations, and TNC, a threaded version of BNC. TNC is used when local vibrations could make a bayonet connection intermittent. RP-SMA is common on Wi-Fi and cellular antennas, while snap-on SMB, MCX and MMCX fit compact devices.

Coax vs. Ethernet vs. Fiber

Coax carries electrical signals on a shielded center conductor, twisted-pair (Ethernet) cable carries them on balanced wire pairs, and fiber carries them as light. All three can carry digital data.

One myth worth clearing up: coax isn’t capped at 10 Mbps. That number comes from 1980s coax Ethernet. DOCSIS 3.1 supports up to 10 Gbps down, and DOCSIS 4.0 raises upstream to as much as 6 Gbps.

Are All Coax Cables the Same?

No. Impedance, shielding, loss, size and jacket rating all vary. Read the jacket print (RG type, and impedance and rating where printed) then match it to your equipment. For a quick multimeter check, disconnect both ends first. Attached equipment, splitters and terminators change the readings.confirm continuity end to end on both the center conductor and the shield, and no continuity between them. Measuring RF performance takes RF test gear.

Off-the-Shelf vs. Custom Coaxial Cable Assemblies

A store-bought cable is fine for standard lengths and connectors. OEMs usually need more: exact lengths and tolerances, mixed connectors like SMA to BNC, several coax lines in one harness, micro coax terminated to a PCB, overmolded strain relief or repeatable production runs.

Technical Cable Applications has built custom coaxial and RF cable assemblies to customer drawings since 2002, from prototype through production, out of Auburn, WA. We’re ISO 9001:2015, UL certified for the United States and Canada for cable assembly, and hold to IPC/WHMA-A-620 standards. We work with businesses, not consumer installs.

Have a drawing? Send it to our coaxial cable team for a quote.

How to Tell if Micro USB is Data

While consumer electronics’ usage of USB data cables has become more homogenized than the wide variety of USB connectors seen in the 2000s, the difference between one USB cable and another can still be confusing to understand for both consumers and those in the tech industry.

Some are only able to transfer data, some are only able to transfer power to batteries, and others can do both but it’s often not immediately clear which ones can do which function, even within a single connector type like USB-C which can have vast variations in internal wires and transfer speeds.

There are also differences in data transfer speed and power transfer efficiency that can make a massive difference in whether a cable will fit your needs. This blog post is intended to be a consumer-friendly guide for identifying the differences for Micro USB and the other main USB connector types in use today, and how to test a cable if a visual inspection isn’t sufficient.

Common Signs That USB Cable Can Transfer Data

• Micro USB Connector
  – Micro USB connectors typically have up to 5 internal pins, but some only use 4. USB power only variations will often omit any wiring for the 2nd and 3rd pins (D- and D+) since they are only necessary for data transfer.
  – The standard USB trident logo printed on the cable or its connector shell is an indicator that the cable should be able to transfer data.
  – You can test the cable’s functionality by plugging it into a computer, and test its speed using the Command Prompt tool “winsat” on Windows PCs. Some cables have limited data transfer and will be insufficient for moving large files quickly.
• USB-A Connector
  – The most common USB type often has an easy indicator of whether the cable is capable of transferring data, which is a colored insert inside the connector. Modern 3.0 types usually have a blue or teal colored insert, while older 2.0 types would sometimes have black and white. You can test a USB cable’s actual transfer speed by plugging it in to a computer running Windows, and using the Command Prompt tool “winsat”.
  – USB 3.0 connectors have 9 pins in a staggered position, while 2.0 only have 4 pins so a visual inspection of the connector may be enough to tell what you need to know.
  – Some USB-A connectors will also have an SS symbol or trident icon printed on the connector shell, indicating “SuperSpeed” which means it should be a 3.0 connector and therefore capable of data transfer.
• USB-C Connector
  – USB-C connectors may have an SS or Thunderbolt logo on them, which indicates SuperSpeed or Thunderbolt tech that provides fast data transfer.
  – USB-C cables may also have their transfer speed printed on them, i.e. 10 Gbps (you can always test this manually using a Windows PC as noted before.)
  – There is no immediately obvious indicator for whether a USB-C cable provides data transfer capabilities from the connector itself, so other methods are often needed to identify whether they can transfer data, and at what speed.
  – Data cable builds are typically thicker due to requiring additional internal wiring for data and power transfer, whereas charge-only cable configurations can be thinner and sleeker with potentially only one internal wire required.

Types of Micro USB Connectors

• Micro-A: Rectangular plug style that is mostly out of circulation nowadays. It was previously used for host device applications, like connecting a flash drive to a mobile phone.
• Micro-B: The most widely used variant of Micro USB cables, with a trapezoidal shape. Most commonly built as charge-only cable for small devices like smartphones, controllers, digital cameras, and USB power banks but has become less used after the advent of USB-C. 
• Micro-AB: An unusual dual-purpose port, rather than being its own connector type: a Micro-AB port is simply designed to connect to both Micro-A and Micro-B connectors. However since the Micro-A was mostly overtaken by the Micro-B, these ports are unnecessary in most applications.
• Micro-B 3:0: A wider variant of the original Micro USB, capable of USB 3.0 data transfer speeds for applications like connecting to external hard drives. If your Micro USB cable is able to transfer data, it’s very likely the Micro-B 3.0 variation. However even this more modern variation is being used much less in new products, typically in favor of USB-C.

In need of custom USB cable manufacturing for your factory, product or facility? Contact us at [email protected] and send us your cable drawing, or any required NDAs. 

What is a Crimping Tool?

We use all kinds of tools and equipment every day when we create custom cables here at our facility in Washington state. However, one of the most fundamental tasks that any aspiring cable technician must learn to do is wire crimping, which can be done by hand with an applicable crimping tool for the specific task.

What is crimping, and what is a crimping tool used for? To start, crimping is a general term for any kind of manual adjustment to a wire, typically to deform it to create secure connections and/or ensure it fits within the space designated for it. 

What is a Crimping Tool Used For?

There are many types of crimping tools and equipment, ranging from small handheld crimper tools for fine adjustments, to gigantic automatic crimping machines intended for large production scale work. What they all have in common is that to properly use them, wire connectors will be inserted into the appropriate die for the desired deformation style, and then the handles or automated machine of the crimping tools will clamp down on the wire and connector, deforming it to the desired shape and sealing the connection. You may also need to use butt connectors to join or extend wires or cables, or shrink connectors to add insulation and waterproofing. These both may require additional crimping tools to get everything secured and deformed just right.

How To Create a Proper Crimp

The most important part of using crimping tools is using the correct wire tools for the job. For instance, if you are crimping a coaxial cable by hand, you want to make sure your crimp tool has the appropriate die in it to accommodate the round coaxial connectors’ shape. This applies for crimping network wires, modular wires, or even larger scale items like locomotive battery wire crimping. Without the right die and crimping tools, you run the risk of overforming or underforming the wire, leaving an unstable connection or potentially damaging the connectors and internal components. 

What Kinds of Crimping Tools Are There?

• Handheld tools
  – As previously mentioned, handheld tools let a technician manually crimp individual wires, cables, and connectors to the desired deformation. They come in a variety of sizes and strengths based on how much force is needed to crimp a given wire and connectors combo. 
• Automated tools
  – We use automated crimping machines like our Schleuniger 36SP Crimp Center for very large crimping applications, like for locomotive battery cables where a tremendous amount of force is required due to the size of the cable and connectors. Most handheld crimping tools are insufficient for these larger applications, and many cable manufacturers do not have the capability for them. 
• Wire cutters and cutting pliers
  – While not strictly a crimping tool, cutting wires is often needed to complete the crimp or join two cables together using a butt connector. These can also range from handheld to automated cutters, depending on the size of the wire or cable being cut. 

What Types of Wire Can be Crimped?

Essentially all cables and connectors can be crimped in some way, but how much a given combo of the two can deform without causing damage or making the connection less secure rather than more secure can vary wildly. Some cable types like ribbon cables are designed to be extremely flexible, and can be bent or deformed into all kinds of shapes without losing connection quality. In contrast, highly shielded or armored cables are more resistant to crimping due to the protective layers put around them, so crimping may need to be done prior to the application of shielding the cable, and the shield applied to the deformed cable rather than trying to crimp it afterwards with crimping tools that can’t accommodate the extra size. 

How to Avoid Damaging Connectors While Using Crimping Tool – Avoid Pliers

The most crucial thing to avoid when working with connectors is ill fitting or sub-optimal tools for the specific connector type. You should have a die in your crimping tool that will provide the desired deformation for the specific connector and wire styles in use, and will fit the sizing. It may be tempting to use basic pliers to manually bend the wire and connector to the desired shape or twist, but this is very likely to damage the internal components, or cause the wire and connector to be out of spec. It’s generally best to only use plier tools for minor adjustments. 

How to Choose a Cable Assembly Manufacturer

If you’re in the procurement department for your corporation or business, you may be in search of a new cable assembly manufacturer or supplier. This can be due to all kinds of factors, but a few of the top ones we hear from new clients are:

• New governmental requirements that affect federal manufacturing contracts
  – As new laws are passed and old ones are updated, your company may need to change where components are sourced from, or what materials they are made from to stay compliant. We offer nearshore manufacturing which can often solve the former problem, but each situation is unique.

• Previous cable manufacturer is no longer able to meet their needs
  – Whether your business is expanding and you need to find the right partner to keep up, or your previous manufacturer can no longer manufacture your cables the same way, you may be forced to find a new supplier. We provide OEM orders along with custom prototyping, but some manufacturers only manufacture larger orders of OEM cables, or only provide custom cables without manufacturing at scale.

• Existing cable manufacturing partner is not able to manufacture a specific product
  – Every cable assembly manufacturer has their specialties, but due to the massive variety of cable and harness types, there will always be some cable types that they cannot manufacture, or can’t offer competitive pricing for. For instance, other companies may refer customers who need M12 cables to us, while we may refer customers back to them for specific needs that aren’t a great fit for us. 

Choosing the Right Cable Assembly Manufacturing Partner

This post will go over the top things to consider when searching for a cable manufacturer who can meet your current needs, and what to provide them with so you can get proposals back quickly.

Material Selection

Where are materials sourced from by the manufacturer?

This may already be top of mind if you are needing to find a new partner due to industry or government restrictions, but it’s important to know where the manufacturer will obtain the materials and parts to manufacture your cable with. Even if you are not required to only use components and materials procured within North America, or don’t need to have a highly detailed record of where every component was produced, you still need to know that your cable manufacturer of choice will have trustworthy sources for components and materials.

Industry Standards

What certifications does the cable manufacturer have?

You may need to only work with manufacturers that have a highly specific certification or qualification, such as ITAR for defense contracting in the United States. However, even if your cable needs don’t have a prerequisite like that, it’s best to choose a company that is provably qualified for the cable assembly work you need. For instance, we are internationally IOS 9001:2015 certified, and UL certified for the United States and Canada for cable assembly.

Cost Savings

Will this manufacturer help keep my costs down?

This may require speaking with the manufacturer’s sales team on the phone or in a video call, as this is a bit more nuanced to answer. The short version is that the right manufacturer will meet your needs for cable assembly manufacturing, while identifying opportunities to keep your costs down wherever possible. We do this by offering nearshore manufacturing options that can often help save on both assembly and shipping costs. Our engineers also have decades of expertise and experience in identifying materials and connectors that will do what is needed, but for a lower cost and/or quicker turnaround time.

Custom Cable 

Do I need a manufacturer that can manufacture custom cables or prototype new ones?

This depends on how far along you are in the cable assembly process, and what you need additional assistance with. For example, we do not provide design of entirely new cable drawings, so we wouldn’t be a good fit for that step of the process. Meanwhile, some manufacturers do not provide prototyping services, or may have high MOQs (Minimum Order Quantity) that don’t work for your prototyping budget. We offer low MOQs thanks to our nearshore manufacturing partnerships, so if you need custom or prototype cables we’d love to hear from you!

OEM Bulk Cable

Do I need a manufacturer that can manufacture large orders of existing cables at scale?

If you have an existing cable assembly that’s ready to go, the most pertinent question is whether the manufacturer you choose has the capacity to turn around the quantity of cables needed, in a timely fashion. Smaller, custom manufacturers may take longer to complete a bulk OEM cable assembly order, compared to a larger company with more equipment and staff tailored for that kind of production speed. We have expanded our manufacturing capacity significantly over the past decades, and can provide large bulk orders that we wouldn’t have been able to initially.

Quality Assurance

Can I trust this manufacturer’s quality control procedures?

It’s important to choose a manufacturer with proven and industry standard quality control systems. We hold to IPC/WHMA-A-620 Standard Revision E for our quality control and inspection regulations, and utilize automated work instruction tools developed in partnership with our friends at Scout Systems to standardize every process down to minute details. This also helps us track exactly where each part and component we use comes from, in order to isolate problems if they are found in the quality inspection process.

How to Cost Down a Medical Cable Assembly

Medical assemblies can be expensive to develop, due to many factors. These include the potential for unexpected revisions after FDA rule changes or prototype disapproval, strong durability needs for cables used in proximity to radioactive or electromagnetic currents, and low voltage limits that require careful development.

This means that keeping costs down and striving for FDA compliance is paramount, since the final version of any new cable assembly or build of an OEM by a different manufacturer will always be under tight scrutiny. This post will highlight some of the best ways we’ve found to keep costs on cables for the healthcare industry down.

What This Will Not Cover

Before we get into the specifics, here are a couple of caveats on the scope of this educational post:

• Healthcare related cable assemblies and wire harnesses cover a wide gamut of needs and applications, and therefore the methods of keeping production costs down vary a lot depending on the assembly type. These are general principles that apply to most cable assemblies, but may not to all. 
• We also do not provide cables that touch patients’ skin such as ECG cables, so we will not be going over anything related to that technology. You can refer to the Cardinal Health study on single-patient use ECG cable to get more insight on that topic.

1. Use Readily Available Wires, Materials and Components for Lean Manufacturing

Specialty items can offer incredible performance benefits or make installation easier: for example, a new type of specialized cable jacket may be extremely durable compared to more readily available options, and therefore make the finished cable assembly have a much longer usage life. However, we always have to determine if the benefit of the specialized component is worth the additional cost, or if it will increase lead times due to difficulty obtaining the needed materials. 

Lean manufacturing is all about finding opportunities for cost savings that will not adversely affect the final product. In many cases, a specialized component will offer a benefit that is not absolutely necessary, making the potential upside less worthwhile while still increasing costs and turnaround times. We recommend only choosing unusual or completely new components when it has been deemed as a requirement, for accomplishing what the cable assembly will be built to do.

2. Utilize Nearshore Manufacturing or Part Sourcing Where Possible

It is not always possible to get parts made in the United States and it can be expensive as well, but an alternative exists that does not require overseas shipping or logistics: nearshore manufacturing. Technical Cable Applications partners with two excellent facilities in Guadalajara that help us reduce lead times, offer lower MOQs for custom requests, and save on costs overall thanks to avoiding overseas shipments and delays. 

We recommend working with cable manufacturers who provide nearshore manufacturing options, or are partnered with reputable nearshore manufacturing companies, as the cost benefits of these partnerships should be carried on to you and keep you from nightmare scenarios where overseas parts are delayed well past the deadline, or put on hold entirely due to global events. You may also find a quality boost over using overseas components, in some cases!

3. Choose House Tooled Connectors from Major Medical Cable Assembly Manufacturers over Building Custom Tools

While we and other custom cable manufacturers can provide custom tooling and dies when absolutely necessary, these processes add a significant amount of time to pre-production and prototyping processes, and therefore must be chosen only when it is necessary to do so. A cheaper method is to choose to source connectors from one major cable manufacturer in the healthcare space like TE, GE or Phillips that will all work together and not need customization, since those companies have in house tooling that is ready to go. 

This will avoid needing to pay extra for custom tooling, and make the assembly easy to manufacture at scale. The downside is having to work with the limitations of existing connectors to accomplish the assembly’s needs, but with creative engineering and cable drawing it may help with cost reduction. 

4. Use the Fewest Number of Connectors for Additional Cost Savings

Finally, it’s best to simplify the cable assembly’s drawing as much as possible with the fewest connector points and components possible. Unless a connector or PCB (printed circuit board) is absolutely necessary for the necessary functions of the assembly in all instances, it may be better to remove it and find a way to accomplish the same need via other components retained in the drawing.

This is a difficult process and may not be possible if the assembly is already using the minimum number of components, but can result in significant cost savings for the final production order of thousands of assemblies.

Who Builds Cable Assemblies In the USA? TCA Does!

It’s no secret that the international economy is particularly volatile in 2025, and tense relations between the United States and some of the main overseas manufacturing nations are causing uncertainty for many corporations and companies that rely heavily on trade with those locations.

These issues and the difficulty in projecting what will be available for overseas manufacturing in the future may be causing you to consider alternative manufacturing options. In that case, choosing Technical Cable Applications for your cable assemblies is a great way to get a head start!

Decrease Your Reliance on Overseas Cable Assembly Manufacturing with Technical Cable Applications

Founded in 2002, Technical Cable Applications has been manufacturing cable assemblies at our facility in the Pacific Northwest for over two decades. We have grown exponentially since our founding, going from a small company that built boutique cable assemblies to one of the largest custom cable manufacturers on the continent.

We have continued to offer custom, highly specialized cable assemblies for unusual applications with the same flexibility and eye for innovation for the past two decades.

However, we have also grown to the point of building harness assemblies for massive OEM orders on behalf of some of the largest companies in the USA, across dozens of industries and thousands of highly varied applications.

Here are some of the top industries we have served as a cable manufacturer since our inception:

• Telecommunications
• Marine
• Automotive
• Energy
• Agriculture
• Medical
• Construction

Nearshore Wire Harness and Cable Assemblies Opportunities: Manufacture with TCA to Take Advantage

Not only is our facility located here in the United States, but we are partnered with two excellent facilities in Guadalajara that have allowed us to do the majority of our manufacturing and part sourcing in North America.

While some third-party parts or connectors may only be made overseas and still require shipping by cargo boat, we do as much as we can in the US and North America to improve lead times, lower MOQs, and maintain higher quality for all our assemblies custom built for your needs.

We manufacture almost any cable type, and can utilize most commonly used connectors and materials, including but not limited to the following:

• M12 – M8, M5 and all pin types and variants within the M12 family of connectors
• Coaxial – micro coaxial, triaxial, RF, and most/all variants of coaxial cables
• USB – USB-A, USB-C, USB-B, Micro USB, and most variants of USB connector types
• Ethernet – Cat5, Cat6, twisted pair, and most modern or classic Ethernet cables and connector styles
• Media cables and assemblies – DisplayPort, HDMI, SATA, XLR, and most audio/visual specialized cable types
• Overmolded cables – Highly durable shielding for cables to resist extreme temperatures, interference, high pressure, foot traffic, etc.
• Battery cables – Most electric battery cable charging types

Highly Reputable Cable Manufacturer Founded and Operated in the USA

Our close working relationship with our partner facilities allows us to directly ensure that rigorous quality control is maintained at every stage, and our UL and ISO 9001:2015 certified processes there and in our Washington state facility allow us to track every single part, material and cable back to its original source in the event of a problem. We’re also ITAR certified.

Send Specifications and Drawings for Your Cable Assemblies or Harness Assemblies to Get Started

Please send your cable drawing and any necessary NDAs to us at [email protected], or fill out our online form and attach your drawing and documentation to get a quote*!

*Please provide cable drawings and all documentation available when contacting us so we can quickly give you an accurate quote. We will do our best to research specifications and materials if a drawing is not available, but if no documentation exists that may need to be created first before we can proceed.