On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 23:09:51 GMT, Cecil Moore wrote:

Owen Duffy wrote:
In my 100m of W551 with a 16+j0 load at 30MHz, the loss in one metre
of line nearest the load is over 4%, the good news is that since 75%
of the transmitter power is already lost, the weighted effect of that
4.3% is nearer 1% of tx output.

What the heck is one "metre"? Netscape says that is misspelled and
probably should be corrected to "metro". Why aren't you guys on
the English system?

Met The fundamental base of the metre is the quarter of the
terrestrial meridian, or the distance from the pole to equator, which
has been divided into ten millions of equal parts, one of which is of
the length of the metre.

I think we saw the light before the English, but I think they have a
partial metrication now.

If the loss in each meter is 4%, wouldn't the loss in 100 meters
be 400%? What am I missing?

I did not say "the loss in each meter is 4%", I said "the loss in one
metre of line nearest the load is over 4%".

Firstly, percentage losses on cascaded sections are not additive...
you know that. Losses multiply, dB losses add because adding exponents
is multiply the fundamental quantity.

As I have said before, you seem to be under the misconception that the
overall loss (ie Pin/Pout) per unit length of a transmission line
operating with VSWR1 is constant,

It is not necessarily a constant. It is for a lossless cable, and I
think it probably is for a distortionless cable... but I would have to
check that.

(It is true that the loss per unit length of a transmission line
operating with VSWR=1 is constant.)

We were discussing an example based on Wireman 551 ladder-line. The
dominant factor affecting loss at 30MHz is the series resistance
element. Does it make sense that since in that example, the magnitude
of the current varies by nearly 25:1 along the line, that the I**2*R
loss per unit length along the line is not constant, and will vary by
a factor approaching 625:1?

Owen
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