[hoops name=”Wavelength”]
Frequency Wavelength Calculator
| Frequency (f): | MHz |
| Frequency Wavelength: | m |
Electromagnetic (EM) waves travel through space (a vacuum or free space) at the speed of light at approx. 2.99792 x 10^8 m/s. The speed of light is often rounded up for ease of calculation to 3.00 x 10^8 m/s.
The wavelength of an electromagnetic wave decreases with frequency.
- 100Hz has a wavelength of 3000km
- 1kHz has a wavelength of 300km
- 1MHz has a wavelength of 300m
- 1GHz has a wavelength of 300mm
- 1THz has a wavelength of just 0.300mm or 300um
Wavelength Formula
The formula for calculating the wavelength lambda λ ( in meters) with the frequency f (in hertz) and the velocity v of the speed of light (in meters per second):
λ  =  v / f
λ  =  2.99792 x 10^8 / f
Example Wavelength Calculation
3.00x 10^8/100MHz  = 3m
Now, as you can see, if you want to receive an RF signal at 100MHz, you would need quite a large antenna (3m) to use 1/2 or 1/4 wavelengths of the calculated value on a dipole antenna.
VSAT Frequency Bands Wavelength
- C band uplink ( ≈ 6Hz) has a wavelength of about  50mm, and the C band downlink for satellite ( ≈ 4GHz) is about 75mm.
- Ku band uplink ( ≈ 14GHz ) has a wavelength of about 21.5mm and the downlink ( ≈ 11GHz) of about 27.3mm.
