Receiver Sensitivity Calculator
Find the weakest signal a receiver can use from its noise figure, bandwidth, required SNR and noise temperature — the starting point for a link budget.
Sensitivity at common bandwidths
| Bandwidth | Noise floor | Sensitivity |
|---|
Sensitivity is the thermal noise in the receiver bandwidth plus the noise figure plus the SNR the demodulator needs: Pmin = 10·log10(k·T·B) + NF + SNR, in dBm. At the standard reference temperature of 290 K the thermal noise density is about −174 dBm/Hz, so a 12.5 kHz channel with a 4 dB noise figure and a 10 dB SNR requirement works out to roughly −119 dBm. The tool assumes a matched 50 Ω system for the voltage equivalent, a flat noise figure across the band, and a receiver noise figure that already includes feedline loss ahead of it. It does not model co-channel or adjacent-channel interference, phase noise, mixer spurs, fading, coding gain, or a full link budget — use the free-space path loss, noise figure and link budget tools for those. Everything runs locally in your browser.