BROWSER-BASED MICROWAVE PATH & LINK DESIGN

Point-to-Point Microwave Path Design & RF Link Modeling

Spanline is a free browser-based microwave path design and link budget application. Import and export native Pathloss 5 (.pl5) files, run ITU-R and North American availability and diffraction studies over automated USGS 3DEP terrain, LiDAR, and clutter profiles, and generate path survey reports and design exports directly in the browser.

Launch Spanline → Documentation / Overview

Platform: Mac, Windows, Linux, iPad File Format: Native .pl5, .gr5, .raf, .rsd & .ant License: Free in Browser

spanline.tcstx.com/app/ — Path Profile & Fresnel Clearance

Pathloss .pl5 & .gr5

Batch Multi-Hop .pl5/.gr5 + .raf/.rsd Round-Trip

501-Item Catalog + ACM

324 Radios (5–2000 MHz), A2C/A2C+, 121 Antennas

ITU-R & North American

P.526-15 Diffraction, Auto Roughness & K-Sweep

USGS 3DEP + LiDAR

Automated DEM, Canopy/Building HAG & FCC ASR

Key Capabilities

Complete Microwave Path & Link Design in One Workspace

Built for point-to-point microwave link designers and network planners who need fast, reproducible link budgets, terrain/LiDAR obstruction clearance, and native Pathloss 5 interoperability without a Windows desktop dongle.

FILE INTEROPERABILITY

Single & Batch `.pl5`, Binary `.gr5` & Bidirectional `.raf` / `.rsd`

Open and export single or batch multi-hop Pathloss 5 .pl5 link files and binary .gr5 (PL50_GR5FILE01) network group files (with 30 m shared-site deduplication and binary Tower Type 0..7 decoding), plus bidirectional .raf (ASCII) and .rsd (binary) radio files and .ant/.asd antenna files—preserving site coordinates, ASR tower heights, TX power options, ACU losses, ACM tables, terrain profiles, and the 840-byte roughness trailer.

EQUIPMENT, MULTI-POWER & ACU

501-Item Catalog, A2C/A2C+, RPE Viewer & Filters

Built-in 501-item catalog (324 radios, 121 antennas, and 56 transmission lines and branching defaults) spanning 5 MHz to 2000 MHz channels across Nokia/Wavence (including XP cross-polar XPIC), Aviat Networks (including 26 A2C/A2C+ Adaptive Dual Carrier models), Ceragon, Cambium, CommScope/Andrew, Radio Waves, RFS, Gabriel, and Times Microwave—with selectable path-frequency and channel-bandwidth filters, interactive Antenna RPE pattern viewer, up to 5 TX power options, 10-mode ACM, ATPC, and ACU branching losses.

DIFFRACTION & ROUGHNESS

ITU-R P.526-15 Diffraction & Auto Terrain Roughness

Full ITU-R P.526-15 Delta-Bullington, Deygout (up to 3 edges), Bullington, and Single Knife-Edge diffraction integrated into the profile, link budget, and reports, plus 1-click Pathloss 5 intervisible sea-level terrain roughness across all 3 path geometries (central 80%, plateau drop-off, and valley floor) with Vigants–Barnett, Crane, and ITU-R P.530-17/18.

REFLECTIVE PLANE & DIVERSITY

Reflective Plane K-Sweep & K = 4/3 Phase Optimizer

Fits a least-squares Reflective Plane and sweeps K = 0.70 → 100 on a non-linear arctan(K)° axis across 4 Main/Diversity traces. Optimize main heights steps onto a constructive reflection peak (n + 0.5λ, ~ +5 dB) at K = 4/3, and Optimize diversity heights places space-diversity antennas at exact 180° opposite phase (null @ K = 4/3 inside the 25–60 ft waveguide sweet spot).

TERRAIN, CLUTTER, LIDAR & ASR

1-Click Cloud GIS Fetch & FCC ASR Lookup

Fetch bare-earth elevation from USGS 3DEP Seamless 1 m (S1M) first, then 3DEP 1/3 and 1 arc-second (with Copernicus GLO-90 worldwide and the source recorded per station), overlay USGS 3DEP LiDAR Height Above Ground (HAG), measured canopy height from NAIP-CHM 0.6 m or Meta CHMv2 1 m (optionally used in clearance), LANDFIRE canopy height, OpenStreetMap 3D buildings, and Annual NLCD 2025 clutter classes, auto-populate ±2′ (±120″) hop bounding boxes in Fetch Data, and search the integrated US FCC ASR tower database by registration number or coordinate radius.

SITE COORDINATES, FIELD & MOBILE

Coordinate Sources, FCC ±1″ Check & Installable App

Keep Customer Provided, ASR Registration, and Actual Measured coordinates per site and print a Site coordinates report of geodesic deltas and bearings, with a 50 ft flag and the FCC ULS vs. ASR ±1 second note. In the field, use GPS location, a full-screen map, and long-press height notes placed on the hop, track every hop on the network health board, and install Spanline as a Progressive Web App with an offline page.

FIND TOWERS & RELAYS

Find Towers & Two-Hop Relay Search

Find towers screens nearby FCC ASR structures for line of sight against USGS 3DEP terrain, clutter, earth bulge, and every active clearance rule, solves the lowest clearing mount per structure, and color-codes candidates by clearance and estimated 99.999% availability. Relay mode ranks two-hop relay structures between Site A and Site B by the weaker leg, and Create hop adds the structure as a site and opens the profile.

REPORT BOOK & WORKFLOW

Mixed-Orientation Report Book & Workflow Menus

The Report Book prints the cover and hop profiles in landscape and per-hop link budget pages in portrait in one document. Menus follow the design workflow (File, Edit, View, Path, Equipment, Analysis, Reports, Help, Account), every workflow tab shares one project step bar, and the last-used project opens directly at startup. Space diversity heights solve to 180° opposite Main at the K where Main peaks.

FCC PART 101 & MULTI-HOP C/I

FCC Part 101 Channel Plan, Hi/Lo Audit & C/I Solver

Select from 503 authentic FCC 47 CFR § 101.147 T/R channel pairs (L6, U6, 11, 18, 23, 80 GHz + unlicensed), audit shared relay sites for Hi/Lo TX/RX bucking conflicts, compute a pairwise directed C/I & TIA TSB-10-F Threshold Degradation (TD dB) matrix using actual .ant/.asd RPE patterns and NFD, and run 1-click conflict-free channel auto-assignment.

AUTO-SIZE DISH & POWER

1-Click Auto-Size Dish & Radio Power to Target

Automatically sweep band-matched catalog dishes (1–12 ft, symmetric/asymmetric, FCC Cat A filter), discrete radio TX power options, and TRD-TRD Space Diversity to satisfy 99.95%, 99.99%, 99.999%, or Simultaneous Dual-Target (Protection + Full Capacity) availability goals with 22-step bisection dB margin surplus/deficit and Multipath vs. Rain bottleneck diagnosis.

DELIVERABLES & REPORT BOOKS

2-Page Pathloss, Full & Network Report Books (RTF/PDF/KML)

Generate classic 2-page Pathloss 5-style Reports, Full Reports, and multi-hop Network Report Books (Project Network Summary + per-hop link budgets/profiles + aggregated BOM), Microsoft Word .rtf files with native vector EMF path profiles and optional Spanline crest logo, printable PDFs, multi-hop 3D Google Earth .kml files, and BOM .csv spreadsheets. Single-hop reports carry a current-hop map, and each Network Report Book adds a landscape network map page (OpenStreetMap or USGS Topo basemap, vector EMF in .rtf).

Workspace Overview

Map, Path Profile, and Complete Link Budget

Explore a multi-hop project on the interactive map, inspect sample-by-sample terrain and LiDAR clearance, and audit every decibel of the transmission and availability worksheet.

Spanline Equipment and Path view after importing a Pathloss 5 .pl5 file

1. Pathloss 5 (`.pl5`) & Site Worksheet

Round-trip .pl5 import/export, WGS84 coordinates, FCC ASR tower lookup, antenna/waveguide selection, and 1-click USGS 3DEP + LiDAR fetch.

Spanline Clearance view with dual-K Fresnel envelopes and 1-click K = 4/3 main and space diversity height optimizer

2. Dual-K Clearance & 1-Click K = 4/3 Optimizer

Dual K = 1.33 / 0.66 Fresnel envelopes with 1-click Optimize main heights, Optimize diversity heights, and safety margin controls.

Spanline Reflection Analysis using Reflective Plane K-Factor Sweep with 4 Main and Diversity traces

3. Reflective Plane (K-Factor Sweep)

Sweeps K = 0.70 → 100 on an arctan(K)° axis, placing Main on the +5.4 dB constructive peak at K = 4/3 and Diversity in the 180° opposite-phase null.

Spanline Adaptive Modulation and Radio dialog with .raf/.rsd import, ACU configuration, TX power options, and 10-mode ACM table

4. Bidirectional `.raf` / `.rsd`, ACM & Bandwidth Filter

Imports and exports Pathloss 5 .raf/.rsd radio specs with frequency/bandwidth filters, up to 5 TX power options, ACU losses, and 10-mode ACM tables.

$Spanline Performance link budget with ITU-R P.526-15 diffraction, automatic terrain roughness, and availability$

5. Link Budget, P.526 Diffraction & Roughness

Full EIRP, ITU-R P.526-15 diffraction loss, automatic Pathloss 5 intervisible terrain roughness, and Vigants–Barnett / Crane / P.530 availability.

6. Classic 2-Page Pathloss & Vector EMF Reports

2-page Pathloss-style and Full Reports with Spanline crest logo, cross-hatched terrain/clutter, dual-K rays, Word .rtf vector EMF, PDF, and KML.

Competitive Comparison

Spanline vs. Pathloss 5, Aviat Design, and Cambium LINKPlanner

How Spanline compares head-to-head against legacy Windows desktop microwave path software and single-vendor cloud portals.

VS. PATHLOSS 5

Instant Browser Workflow + Full .pl5 / .gr5 & Multi-Hop C/I Parity

Pathloss 5 requires a legacy Windows desktop installer, a USB hardware dongle or per-seat license key, manual SRTM/NED/NLCD GIS tile downloads, and manual trial-and-error reflection height and dish/channel tuning. Spanline delivers an instant browser workflow with 1-click USGS 3DEP + LiDAR + NLCD + OSM + FCC ASR cloud fetch, batch multi-hop .pl5 and binary .gr5 (PL50_GR5FILE01) network group import with 30 m site deduplication, 1-click Auto-Size Dish & Radio Power to Availability Target (including Dual Target), FCC Part 101 channel planning with Shared-Site Hi/Lo audit, pairwise directed C/I & TIA TSB-10-F Threshold Degradation (TD dB) matrix, and 1-click conflict-free channel auto-assignment, 1-click K = 4/3 constructive-peak Main and 180° opposite-phase Space Diversity optimization, ITU-R P.526-15 diffraction, 3-geometry terrain roughness, and single-hop or Network Report Book vector EMF .rtf + PDF exports.

VS. AVIAT DESIGN

Vendor-Neutral Catalog & Reflective Plane K-Sweep

Aviat Design is a vendor-centric cloud tool focused primarily on Aviat radio families, with a slower form-driven step workflow and limited raw .pl5 / multi-vendor .raf/.rsd file interoperability and custom reflective-plane K-sweep diagnostics. Spanline provides a vendor-neutral 501-item radio, antenna, and waveguide catalog (including 26 Aviat A2C/A2C+ Adaptive Dual Carrier models alongside Nokia Wavence, Ceragon, and Cambium), bidirectional .pl5, .raf, and .rsd export & import, and interactive Pathloss-grade K-factor reflective plane sweeps and phase alignment.

VS. CAMBIUM LINKPLANNER

Full Licensed Microwave Physics & .pl5 Interoperability

Cambium LINKPlanner is vendor-locked to Cambium PTP/PMP hardware with simplified propagation and reflection controls compared to full Pathloss 5 workflows. Spanline supports vendor-neutral licensed and unlicensed microwave link design with full ITU-R P.530-17/18 and Vigants–Barnett multipath, ITU-R P.526-15 multi-edge diffraction, reflective-plane K-sweeps, 1-click K = 4/3 phase-aligned main and diversity height optimization, and native Pathloss 5 .pl5 compatibility.

Capability	Spanline	Pathloss 5	Aviat Design	Cambium LINKPlanner
Platform & Licensing	Free in browser on Mac, Windows, Linux, and iPad (no hardware dongle or installer)	Windows desktop installer + USB dongle / license key	Aviat cloud portal	Cambium cloud/desktop portal
Pathloss 5 `.pl5`, `.gr5` & `ant_rad` Files	Native single & batch multi-hop `.pl5` Round-Trip Import & Export + binary `.gr5` (`PL50_GR5FILE01`) network group import (30 m site deduplication, Tower Type `0..7`) + bidirectional `.raf` & `.rsd` radio export/import + `.ant`/`.asd` import	Native `.pl5`, `.gr5`, `.raf`, `.rsd`, `.ant` on Windows	Limited / Aviat-focused	Cambium project formats
Equipment Catalog, Multi-Power & ACU	501-item multi-vendor catalog (324 radios `5–2000 MHz` incl. Aviat `A2C`/`A2C+` & Nokia `XP`, 121 antennas with RPE viewer, 56 txlines/branching) + frequency/bandwidth filters, bidirectional `.raf`/`.rsd` export/import, 5 TX power options, 10-mode ACM, ATPC, and ACU losses	External radio/antenna files loaded on Windows	Aviat radio families	Cambium PTP/PMP hardware
ITU-R P.526-15 Diffraction	Full Delta-Bullington, Deygout (up to 3 edges), Bullington, and Single Knife-Edge integrated into Profile, Link Budget, and Reports	ITU-R P.526 Deygout, Bullington, Spherical Earth	Portal diffraction check	Simplified obstacle loss
Auto Terrain Roughness & Availability	1-click Pathloss 5 intervisible sea-level roughness across all 3 path geometries (central 80%, plateau drop-off, valley floor) + auto Climate Factor C, Vigants–Barnett, Crane, and ITU-R P.530-17/18	Vigants–Barnett, Crane, and ITU-R P.530 on Windows	Aviat link availability	Cambium link availability
Reflective Plane K-Sweep & Diversity Optimizer	Least-squares Reflective Plane (K = 0.70 → 100 on arctan(K) axis, 4 traces) + 1-click K = 4/3 constructive-peak Main & 180° opposite-phase Null @ K = 4/3 Space Diversity optimizer	Manual/assisted reflection & space-diversity worksheets	Basic reflection check	Basic reflection check
Terrain, Clutter, LiDAR & FCC ASR	1-click cloud USGS 3DEP Seamless 1 m (S1M) and 1/3 arc-second DEM, 3DEP LiDAR HAG, NAIP-CHM / Meta CHMv2 measured canopy height, LANDFIRE, OSM 3D buildings, Annual NLCD 2025, automatic `±2′` hop bounding box in Fetch Data, Copernicus GLO-90 worldwide, integrated FCC ASR search, and Customer / ASR / Measured coordinate deltas with the FCC ±1″ note	Manual local GIS/DEM tile downloads & external ASR lookup	Portal terrain profile	Portal terrain profile
1-Click Auto-Size Dish & Radio Power to Availability Target	Vendor-neutral `1–12 ft` dish (symmetric/asymmetric, FCC Cat A filter), TX power, and `TRD-TRD` Space Diversity optimizer for `99.95%`, `99.99%`, `99.999%`, or Simultaneous Dual Target with Multipath vs. Rain bottleneck diagnosis	Manual dish & radio trial selection	Aviat radio/dish rules	Cambium link sizing
FCC Part 101 Channel Plan, Hi/Lo Audit & Multi-Hop C/I Interference	Built-in 503-pair FCC `47 CFR § 101.147` channel table, Shared-Site Hi/Lo Node Audit, Pairwise Directed C/I & TIA TSB-10-F Threshold Degradation (`TD dB`) matrix with actual `.ant`/`.asd` RPE & NFD, and 1-Click Conflict-Free Auto-Assign	Desktop network interference & coordination module	Portal frequency selection	Portal channel selection
Reports & Exports	2-page Pathloss-style Reports, Full Reports & Multi-Hop Network Report Books, Word `.rtf` with native vector EMF profile + crest logo, PDF print, Google Earth `.kml`, and Multi-Hop BOM `.csv`; hop and network report maps	Pathloss reports & RTF on Windows	Aviat PDF/portal output	Cambium PDF/portal output
Undo & Version History	Multi-step undo and redo with labeled steps, plus server-side project versions (last 50 plus one per day for 30 days) with preview and restore as a new version	Manual `.pl5` file copies	Portal project saves	Project file saves
Antenna height editing	Full-screen Pathloss-style Antenna Heights mode with steppers, Auto/Manual, Main/Divr/User antcomb, F2/F9 hotkeys, critical-point arrow, and steel/spacing limit banners, in a browser	Antenna Heights module on Windows desktop	Height entry on the portal profile	Per-end height entry on the profile
Reflection accuracy	K sweep with antenna discrimination, reflected-ray shielding, Rayleigh roughness σ, NLCD auto surface, climate-based K range, −6 dB destructive-null rule, and a Pathloss-identical toggle	Smooth-plane reflection analysis	Reflection point check	Reflection analysis with height suggestions

WHERE SPANLINE EXCELS (PROS)

Strengths for Point-to-Point & Multi-Hop Link Design

Instant cross-platform browser execution with zero installation or dongle; 1-click cloud USGS 3DEP DEM, LiDAR HAG, NLCD/OSM clutter, and FCC ASR lookup; complete Pathloss 5 fidelity (single & batch multi-hop .pl5 round-trip, binary .gr5 network group import, bidirectional .raf/.rsd radio export/import, 501-item catalog with Aviat A2C/A2C+ & Nokia XP, 5 TX power options, 10-mode ACM, ACU losses, ITU-R P.526-15 diffraction, and 3-geometry terrain roughness); 1-click Auto-Size Dish & Radio Power to Availability Target (including Dual Target); built-in FCC Part 101 channel planning, Shared-Site Hi/Lo audit, pairwise directed C/I & TIA TSB-10-F Threshold Degradation (TD dB) matrix, and 1-click conflict-free channel auto-assignment; 1-click K = 4/3 phase-aligned Main and Space Diversity optimization; and 2-page Pathloss-style, Full, and Multi-Hop Network Report Books with vector EMF Word .rtf export.

SCOPE & TRADE-OFFS (CONS)

Where Pathloss 5 or Vendor Portals Fit

Spanline includes built-in multi-hop FCC Part 101 channel planning, shared-site Hi/Lo conflict detection, pairwise directed C/I & TIA TSB-10-F Threshold Degradation (TD dB) matrices, and 1-click conflict-free channel auto-assignment across all hops in a project; formal third-party FCC § 101.103 Prior Coordination Notice (PCN) database filings against external incumbent licensees still require external frequency-coordination databases. Pathloss 5 also includes VHF/UHF land-mobile area coverage contour modules and air-gapped offline multi-gigabyte DEM tile archives, whereas Aviat Design and Cambium LINKPlanner connect directly into single-vendor factory quoting systems.

Technical Specifications

Models, Datasets & File Formats

Full documentation of the mathematical models and binary file structures is available on the Spanline Documentation & Overview pages.

Subsystem	Supported Standards, Datasets & Capabilities	Reference
Pathloss 5 `.pl5`, `.gr5` & `ant_rad` Files	Native single and batch multi-hop binary `.pl5` import and round-trip export (preserving the 840-byte roughness trailer and binary Tower Type `0..7`), binary Pathloss 5 `.gr5` (`PL50_GR5FILE01`) network group import with 30 m shared-site deduplication, bidirectional Pathloss 5 `.raf` (`PL50_ASCII_RADIO_SPEC_04` ASCII) and `.rsd` (`PL50_RADIO_SPEC_03` binary) radio specification export and import, `.ant`/`.asd` antenna import, and JSON project archives.	.pl5 Import Docs →
FCC Part 101 Channel Plan, Hi/Lo Audit & Multi-Hop C/I	503 authentic FCC `47 CFR § 101.147` T/R channel pairs across `L6`, `U6`, `11 GHz`, `18 GHz`, `23 GHz`, and `80 GHz` E-Band (`5–2000 MHz`) plus unlicensed `5.8/24 GHz`; Shared-Site Hi/Lo Node Audit (`150 m` clustering + odd-cycle detection); Pairwise Directed C/I & TIA TSB-10-F Threshold Degradation (`TD dB`) matrix with actual `.ant`/`.asd` or FCC Cat A/B1/B2 co-pol/cross-pol RPE and NFD; and 1-Click Conflict-Free Auto-Assign.	Link Budget Docs →
1-Click Auto-Size Dish & Radio Power Optimizer	Vendor-neutral dish (`1–12 ft`, symmetric or asymmetric, FCC Cat A and max-diameter filters), discrete radio TX power, and `TRD-TRD` Space Diversity solver targeting Reference, Full Capacity, or Simultaneous Dual Target (`99.95%`, `99.99%`, `99.999%`) with 22-step bisection dB margin surplus/deficit and Multipath vs. Rain bottleneck diagnosis.	Link Budget Docs →
Propagation, Roughness & Availability	Vigants–Barnett with 1-click Pathloss 5 intervisible sea-level terrain roughness across all 3 path geometries (central 80%, plateau drop-off, valley floor) and auto Climate Factor C; ITU-R P.530-17/18 multipath; Crane (200+ US city rain curves) and ITU-R P.837 / P.838 rain; ITU-R P.1510-0 annual surface temperature; ITU-R P.676 gaseous absorption (O₂ + H₂O).	Link Budget Docs →
Diffraction Models	Full ITU-R P.526-15 Delta-Bullington (spherical earth + Bullington), Deygout multi-edge (up to 3 edges), classical Bullington, and Single Knife-Edge diffraction loss with continuous profile trace and direct integration into RSL, fade margin, and reports.	Link Budget Docs →
Reflection & Space Diversity Optimization	Least-squares Reflective Plane (K = 0.70 → 100 sweep on non-linear arctan(K)° axis across 4 Main/Diversity traces) + 1-click K = 4/3 constructive-peak Main (n + 0.5λ) and 180° opposite-phase Null @ K = 4/3 Space Diversity height optimizer (25–60 ft sweet spot).	Feature Matrix →
Terrain, Clutter & LiDAR	USGS 3DEP Seamless 1 m (S1M) and 1/3 arc-second bare-earth DEM, USGS 3DEP LiDAR Height Above Ground (HAG), NAIP-CHM 0.6 m / Meta CHMv2 1 m measured canopy height, LANDFIRE canopy height, OpenStreetMap 3D buildings, Annual NLCD 2025 land-cover clutter, automatic `±2′` (`±120″`) hop bounding-box calculation in Fetch Data, FCC ASR lookup, and global Open-Meteo 90 m DEM fallback.	Feature Matrix →
Equipment, Multi-Power, ACM & ACU	501-item catalog (324 radios across `5–2000 MHz` channels, 121 antennas with interactive RPE pattern viewer, 56 transmission lines and branching defaults) across Nokia/Wavence (incl. `XP` XPIC), Aviat Networks (incl. 26 `A2C`/`A2C+` Adaptive Dual Carrier models), Ceragon, Cambium, CommScope/Andrew, Radio Waves, RFS, Gabriel, and Times Microwave, with path-frequency and channel-bandwidth filtering, bidirectional `.raf`/`.rsd` export/import, up to 5 TX power options, 10-mode ACM, ATPC, and ACU branching losses.	Feature Matrix →
Reports & Deliverables	Classic 2-page Pathloss-style Reports, Full Reports, and Multi-Hop Network Report Books, Microsoft Word `.rtf` (with native vector EMF profiles and selectable Spanline crest logo), Path Survey PDF print layout, Google Earth 3D `.kml`, and Multi-Hop Summary & BOM `.csv`, with current-hop and network map pages. A demo project opens with no signup; a signed-in account saves projects on the server, with multi-step undo/redo and project version history (preview and restore).	Launch App →