In article , Cecil Moore
wrote:

Hi John, one important fact that some people would like to
forget is that the reflected wave can indeed be partitioned
from the forward wave.

Hello, and it would be more correct to say that the forward and reflected
waves are components of a standing wave.

However a circulator plus load resistor located at the source
will prevent reflected wave energy from being incident upon
the source and will heat up that load resistor in the process
proving that reflected waves are real and do contain energy.

Hmm. Don't quite get that. Say an RF voltage source is located at port A
of an ideal 3-port circulator designed for a system (characteristic)
impedance of Zo. A load of ZL terminates port B and a load of Zo is
attached to port C. Now, incident energy from the source at A is
transferred by circulator action to the load at port B. If ZL is not
equal to Zo then reflected energy from port B is transferred to port C
where it is dissipated in the port C termination. None of the reflected
energy originating from port B ever returns to port A in this ideal case
(circulator has infinite isolation). Sincerely,

John Wood (Code 5550) e-mail:
Naval Research Laboratory
4555 Overlook Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20375-5337