Keith wrote:
"---it will turn out that there is no value in forward and reverse power
on a line with non-real Zo."

The Bird wattmeter works well enough on coax lines used between the
usual transmitter and antenna. Loss produces reactance in coax. We don`t
seek lossy coax. If it becomes lossy, the line is likely to be replaced.

If a transmitter isn`t matched when the load is matched to the coax, an
improved match between the transmitter and the coax may come from
mismatching the load.

A true conjugate match exists everywhere in the system between the
transmitter and the antenna. That is, one could check the impedances in
both directions at any place in the system and find that the two
inpedances are conjugates of each other.

There is reactance in every non-resonant length of coax which is not
terminated in its characteristic impedance value.

The vector sum of the incident and reflected wave voltages is less than
the arithmetic sum at a point 1/8 wavelength back from the reflection
point. At 1/8 wavelength back from a reflection, the incident and
reflected wave voltage vectors are 90-degrees apart. At 1/8 wavelength
in coax, the reactance is numerically equal to the Zo of the line, as a
piece of trivia.

At 1/4 wavelebgth back from the reflection, the incident and reflected
wave voltage vectors are 180-degrees apart. The line voltage total is
thus the arithmetic difference of the incident and reflected wave
voltages.

At 1/2 wavelength back from the reflection, the incident and reflected
wave phases have continued their phase changes in opposite directions
with distance back from the reflection until the voltages have reached
the in-phase condition. In a lossless line, the conditions at the
reflection point would be repeated at a point 1/2-wavelength back.

When a resistance load matches the Zo of its feedline, the reflection
coefficient is zero, so there is no reflection from the load. The load
absorbs all the incident wave. The effect of a reactive load is merely
to displace the positions of the minima and maxima along the line but
not with respect to each other.

Best regards, Richard Harrison, KB5WZI