Transmission lines of various degrees of dispersion are often designed and fabricated for use in high speed circuits and in metamaterials. The quick generation of dispersion diagrams and attenuation coefficient curves can be made from S-parameter measurements, with S 21 alone being sufficient for generating dispersion diagrams. S 21 is also sufficient to accurately measure the attenuation coefficient, group velocity, phase velocity, and effective index of refraction of highly dispersive transmission lines. V C 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 56:758-761, 2014; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com.