Radial Catapult Mini TX 4-Channel Cat 5 Analog Audio Snake, XLR-F Send Module

Radial Catapult Mini TX: Four Channels of Analog Audio Down One Cat 5 Cable

The Radial Catapult Mini TX is a compact, passive four-channel analog audio snake that sends microphone- or line-level signals over a single standard shielded Cat 5 or Cat 6 cable. It gathers four sources on a short fan-out of female XLR connectors and maps them onto the twisted pairs inside one lightweight Ethernet cable, so a slim, inexpensive spool does the job of a bulky multi-core loom. For the engineer tired of hauling and coiling heavy copper, the Mini TX turns the run from stage to console into a single tidy cable you can route in seconds.

How a Cat 5 Snake Replaces a Heavy Multi-Core Loom

A balanced audio channel needs two signal conductors plus a shield, and a standard Cat 5 cable contains four twisted pairs, which is exactly enough to carry four balanced channels at once. The Catapult Mini TX wires each XLR input straight to a dedicated pair on the RJ45 connector, so the four analog signals travel side by side down one cable to a matching Catapult receiver at the far end. Because Cat 5 and Cat 6 are among the most widely available and economical cables on earth, a run that once demanded a heavy, costly snake now rides on a spool from any hardware store.

Straight-Wire Passive Operation With No Power Required

The Mini TX is fully passive: the audio never leaves the analog domain and there is no active circuitry, no battery, and no phantom supply to fail. That straight-wire path from XLR to RJ45 introduces no analog-to-digital conversion, no latency, and no coloration, so what enters the send module is what arrives downstream. The signal path is quiet and linear from 7 Hz to 20 kHz, handles a full 140 dB of dynamic range, and accepts up to +35 dBu before clipping, with a ground-lift switch on hand to break hum-inducing ground loops.

The Send End of the System: Four Female XLR Inputs

In the Catapult family, TX means transmit, the end where your sources enter the snake. The Mini TX carries four female XLR connectors on a two-foot fan-out, and because a microphone or balanced line cable terminates in a male XLR, it plugs straight into these female inputs with no adapters. At the destination you pair the Mini TX with a male-XLR Catapult Mini RX or a full-size Catapult RX4, RX4L, or RX4M receiver, and the single Cat 5 cable between them becomes a robust four-channel analog snake.

A Rugged Steel Chassis That Fits Where a Snake Cannot

The Mini TX is built into a compact 16-gauge steel chassis barely longer than a hand, small enough to tuck into a mixer case, a rack bag, or the side pocket of a gig bag. Despite the small footprint it is road-ready, standing up to the knocks and pulls of daily load-ins where a fragile connector block would fail. When space and weight are at a premium, a full-size stage box is overkill, and the Mini TX delivers the same four clean channels in a fraction of the room.

Works With the Cat 5 Wiring Already in Your Building

Because so many buildings are pre-wired with Cat 5 for their networks, the Mini TX lets you send audio between distant rooms using cabling that is already in the walls, with no new multi-core to pull. That makes it a natural fit for fixed installs, houses of worship, and conference spaces that need to move a few channels from one room to another. One caution worth knowing: the analog audio on a Catapult link cannot pass through a network switch, so the cable must run directly from the Mini TX to the receiver.

Who the Catapult Mini TX Is For

The Mini TX is for the install technician wiring audio across a building on existing Cat 5, the front-of-house engineer who wants a slim four-channel run instead of a heavy copper snake, and the small-venue or worship team that needs a dependable, compact way to get four sources to the console. If you value the freedom to mix and match send and receive modules across an entire Catapult ecosystem, the Mini TX is the send end that starts the chain.