Cecil Moore wrote:

[snip]

The definition of steady-state by the other side is pure unvarying
sine waves with no noise and no modulation.

[snip]

I have challenged them to produce a standing wave without a rearward-
traveling wave but nobody has been up to that challenge.

73, Cecil http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp

Cecil,

I don't plan to enter this endless argument about transmission lines,
but there are a couple of points you might want to consider.

* Steady state simply means that a phenomenon has no inherent reference
to its time of origin. One cannot observe a steady-state wave and
determine any clue about when it started. It contains no absolute time
markers. A transient, on the other hand, contains direct reference
information about when it was formed. There is no requirement that the
steady state phenomenon is a simple sine wave.

Many problems in math, science, and engineering exhibit both transient
and steady state solutions. It is not clear why there is any confusion
at all in this thread.

* Standing waves don't require the pre-existence of traveling waves. A
straightforward application of Maxwell's equations with appropriate
boundary conditions for the physical environment will lead to standing
waves directly. Check out one of your recently quoted favorite authors,
J. C. Slater, and look at some of the resonant cavity stuff. Most
definitely standing waves, but you will find lots of complex Bessel
functions and darn few traveling waves.

In virtually every transmission line situation proposed on RRAA, whether
tuned antenna feed lines or quarter-wave stubs, the transmission line is
resonant. It is possible to consider the resulting standing waves as the
sum of two traveling waves, but it is equally valid to consider the
transmission line as a simple resonator. The physically measurable
instantaneous voltages and currents are precisely the same whether one
considers oscillation from capacitive to inductive energy storage in the
line or the sum of two counter-traveling waves.

You often refer to wave-particle duality and to the use of S-parameters
instead of lumped circuit analysis. The world of science and engineering
is absolutely filled with this sort of dual description for physical
phenomena. In many cases one approach will be more convenient or more
intuitive, but that does not make the dual approach less valid.

There's more than one way to skin a cat.

73,
Gene
W4SZ