Any stub that presents an infinite impedance should be able to be removed
and without anything changing. You have an infinite impedance before the
removal and you have an infinite impedance after the removal, so nothing
changes. There are forward components and reflected components flowing in and
out of a stub. That's why removing it changes things.

Is it because energy is stored in the stub? If the impedance is infinite then
no power dissipation is removed from the system. Something is dynamic in
nature in this example because if you remove an infinite impedance, nothing
will happen. Could the change be due to the fact that the stub is in the near
field of the antenna and subject to induced rf currents? If this were the
case, then removal of the stub would change things.
If the stub presents an infinite impedance, with no external influences,
removing it should have no effect. If the stub were replaced with a quality
parallel resonant LC circuit in a shielded box, would removing it make any
difference? I don't know, I am asking.


73 Gary N4AST