Ordinary electrical cables suffice to carry low frequency alternating current (AC) and audio signals. However, they cannot be used to carry currents in the radio frequency range above about 30 kHz, because the energy tends to radiate off the cable as radio waves, causing power losses. RF currents also tend to reflect from discontinuities in the cable such as connectors and joints, and travel back down the cable toward the source. These reflections act as bottlenecks, preventing the signal power from reaching the destination. Transmission lines use specialized construction, and impedance matching, to carry electromagnetic signals with minimal reflections and power losses. The distinguishing feature of most transmission lines is that they have uniform cross sectional dimensions along their length, giving them a uniform "impedance", called the characteristic impedance, to prevent reflections. The higher the frequency of electromagnetic waves moving through a given cable or medium, the shorter the wavelength of the waves. Transmission lines become necessary when the transmitted frequency's wavelength is sufficiently short that the length of the cable becomes a significant part of a wavelength.