Cecil Moore wrote:
John Popelish wrote:

So waves can move in one or more directions while any bit of water
moves only locally. Same with charge.


My point exactly. I'm glad you agree.

We shall see.

There is energy heating the load resistor. The current does not come
through the source. It is created at the end of the line by the
traveling energy wave.


The H-field energy in the load originated in the source.

Yes.

Current is directly proportional to the H-field in the EM wave.

Yes.

Let me quote Ramo and Whinnery:

I = e^jwt/Z0[(V+)(e^-jwz/v) - (V-)(e^jwz/v)]

This is the *continuous* equation for source current at
z = 0 and load current at z = (distance). Essentially the
same equation is found in every reference on transmission
lines.

Yes. That equation describes the instantaneous current you would find
at any point as the wave pases through it.
It does not imply that the current at one point is the same current at
another point. It implies a continuity of the energy wave. At some
points along that wave, the current has some positive value (charge
going in the same direction as the wave. At other points, the current
has some negative value, indicating that charge is moving the opposite
way from the wave direction. The current is continuous only in that
there is a smooth, sinusoidal variation in its magnitude and direction
as you look along the wave path. but the current at one point is not
the current at some other point.

They don't say current is "created" at the load. They say
current is a *continuous single-valued function* between
source and load.

A current described by a continuous single valued function is not a
continuous current. The water that drowns people in a tidal wave in
California is a current dragged over the beach by an energy wave that
caused a continuous pattern on of local currents from the landslide in
Hawaii. But the actual water current (movement of water molecules
carrying the wave energy) did not flow continuously from Hawaii to
California. There are no Hawaiian fish carried to California by a
current of water that connected those two locations.

Do you have a reference for your "creation"
of current?

Only Maxwell's equations.

That the H-field experiences a delay and transformation on its
way to the load doesn't mean that current is magically created
out of thin air at the load.

Current is created and reversed (charge is sloshed back and forth) all
along the line, from source to load. Just as water is moved up and
down all along the path of a wave over the surface of the water. But
if you pick any bit of water, it does not follow the wave.

Hang some modulation on the current at the source. You will
measure that modulation arriving at the load in the form of
current exactly in accordance with the laws of physics
embodied in the distributed network model.

Yes, delayed by the speed of light in that medium.

In a DC circuit, is the current also "created" at the load?

No. DC has an infinite wavelength, so there is no significant
distance (in wavelength units) no matter how far apart the source and
load appear to be. If a battery near earth is connected to a load
near Alpha Centauri by a perfectly conducting loop, and you consider
the DC case (DC has an infinite duration), then there is no
significant distance between that source and load, so local current
connects them. Electrons that are pushed out of the battery will
reach the load and return to the battery. The definition of "local"
is wavelength dependent.

Back to the RF case: Do you imagine that electrons from the source
reach the load?

My denial is a recognition that current does not connect the source to
the load, ...


Then by all means, disconnect the source and keep the current.

Be happy to. For the amount of time it takes for a wave to pass the
full length of the line, energy will continue to be delivered to the
load (current will pass through it), even though the source has been
disconnected and causes no further current in the line.

Anything is possible in your mind. Just don't expect that to
work in reality.

I am doing my best to limit my mind to strictly what reality allows,
in this discussion.

How could
its unchanging phase be used to measure the electrical
length of the coax?


You measure the difference of the node positions, with and without the
coil. The shift in distance (in wavelengths) between the two nodes
that straddle the coil is the phase shift of the coil for each of the
traveling waves that make up the standing wave.


Someone needs to tell that to W7EL. I've tried to tell him but
instead of thanking me, he 'ploinked' me.

Perhaps he has lost interest in this thread.
Perhaps he is taking this topic personally.
Perhaps he enjoys yanking your chain.
Perhaps ...

What does any of that have to do with our conversation?

Your thoughts are in a rut.