W. Watson wrote:
Thanks for your reply. I have a few questions. When you say "standing
waves", I take it that one can have more than one on the line?

Standing waves are created by two coherent traveling waves moving
in opposite directions in a transmission line. In a conventional
system of source, transmission line, and load, one of the traveling
waves moves from the source toward the load and is called the forward
wave. The other traveling wave moves from the load toward the source
as a reverse or reflected wave. The reflected wave is usually the
result of a load being mismatched to a transmission line. If no
mismatch exists, no standing waves are created and the system is
considered to be "flat", i.e. one forward traveling wave.

How does one know they want to improve their impedance match?

For a transmitted signal, we establish a Z0-match to our transmitter
often at the input of an antenna tuner. When reflected energy is
eliminated on the coax between the tuner and transmitter, we know
we have a Z0-match by the SWR meter reading of 1:1. We also use our
antenna tuners to tune for maximum received signal on our S-meters.
At the Z0-match point, maximum available energy is transferred.

If you know the input impedance to a receiver, you can match your
antenna system to it to achieve maximum available energy transfer
from the antenna.
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73, Cecil http://www.qsl.net/w5dxp