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Old September 4th 04, 01:59 PM
Ian White, G3SEK
 
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Richard Fry wrote:
"Ian White, G3SEK wrote
The meter measures nothing that involves the source, except
the level of RF that it supplies. It does not respond in any way
whatever to the source impedance.

_____________

Not that I said it did in my part of the thread, but nevertheless the above
statement is not strictly true. In the case where the source Z of the tx PA
does not match its load Z (which is typical), power reflected from the load
mismatch will at least partly be re-reflected from the PA -- which then
contributes to the power sensed by a "wattmeter" in the output path.


Sorry, that statement cannot be correct. It would mean that the
impedance you measure at the near end of a transmission line (terminated
by some arbitrary load at the far end) would depend on the internal
impedance of the device that's doing the measuring - and that is not
true, either in transmission-line theory or in the real world. It is a
function only of the line and the load.

Others can probably explain why the statement is also incorrect
according to the concept of "forward and reflected power waves". Myself,
I prefer avoid that concept completely, because it so easily leads into
this kind of mess.


--
73 from Ian G3SEK 'In Practice' columnist for RadCom (RSGB)
http://www.ifwtech.co.uk/g3sek