ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Link Budget

A link budget is like a math equation that helps us figure out if a radio signal will be strong enough to send a message. It's like a recipe that tells us how much ingredients (energy) we need to mix together to make the message strong enough to get to where it needs to go. We have to put in all kinds of numbers including things like how powerful our radio signal is, how far away the receiver is, and how much energy our radio signal will lose while traveling through the air. After we put all of our numbers in the equation, it will tell us if our signal is strong enough or not.