On 10 Sep 2006 14:53:25 -0700, "N0GW" wrote:

Hi Gary,

A number of comments:

I'd like to take a somewhat different tack on handling this question.
It is a wave versus photon perspective.

Photons are no less wave oriented than RF - nor more. Also, RF is no
less "corpuscular" (Einstein's term) than photons.

The real model of the radio operation is for there to be alternating
electrostatic and magnetic fields surounding an antenna when it is
driven by an RF power source. Through some yet poorly understood
physical mechanism, either envolving the acceleration of electrons in
the antenna's conductor or from the alternating E and H fields, photons
are flung off the antenna.

Hardly "flung off" and even less, "poorly understood."

I interpret this to mean that what we call the "near field" around an
antenna is the volume around an antenna where the electrostatic and
magnetic fields are at an energy level significantly above natural
background levels.

The background levels of EM fields are predominantly in the
milli-micro-nano Kelvins of temperature. Nearly everything produces
an energy level significantly above that.

The "far field" I interpret to mean where RF energy
exists as a photon flux.

Photons don't exist in the near field? A flux is simply the bulk of
them; like one electron flowing, or a trillion, is current.

The 377 ohm thing though is a function of the releative intensities of
the electrostatic and magnitic fields surrounding an antenna.

It is a function of permittivity and permeability which exists even if
the fields are not there.

It is a constant like pi or e.

Unless you happen upon something other than a vacuum.

It is an emperically measured characteristic of our universe.

It is empirically measured, but that does not create its value.

Now, a point worth noting is that while RF current in a conductor
produces photons, photons produce RF current in conductors.

How much current is created by your antenna in sunlight?

That, of
course, is why antennas are able to operate for both receiving and
transmitting. That is also why radio signals bounce. Photons are
absorbed by objects such as wires or dirt and RF currents are produced.

An 10 meter doublet of 1mm wire is exposed to 5 - 10 W of power. How
much can you capture and bottle due to this production of current in
conductors?

Those currents, in turn, generate new photons.

Photons are generated on the basis of an electron in an excited state
falling to a lower ground state, not by current flow.

The conductivity and
dielectric constant of the absorbing material determine the amplitude
and phasing of the current and thus the primary direction of emission
of the new photons.

Photons do not follow any particular channel of radiation, not unless
you have a very large lens (few antennas do).

So... Yes the antenna is a transducer. No, it does not transform 50
ohms into 377 ohms. 377 ohms refers to the eletrostatic and magnentic
fields as they exist in the near field of an antenna or conductor.

In fact, in the near field of an antenna, there is nothing that
resembles 377 Ohms of Z.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC