"Jeff" wrote in
.com:

The so called "forward power" and "reflected power" are notional
values, but not actual power "components". The only power is the
average rate at which energy passes a point, and it is in one
direction or the other.

I am sorry, but I disagree, forward power is real and can be measured,
or if you wish separated out with a circulator or isolator. What you
are describing could be called 'transmitted' power or power delivered
into a mismatched load, but that it different from forward power, or
the power delivered by the source.

Jeff,

You dropped a number of terms he
- 'transmitted' power;
- power delivered into a mismatched load;
- forward power;
- power delivered by the source;

The power delivered to a load (of any kind) from a lossless transmission
line section, is the same as the power delivered by the source. In the
case of the lossy line, then the line characteristics and load impedance
also need to be taken into account to calculate the power lost in the
line section, and it is not as simple as using up a dB/100' rating in a
table (unless the line is matched).

You assertion that you have travelling forward and reflected power waves
on the transmission line runs into a problem when you try to analyse the
combination of both at a point (eg the input to the line) as power
doesn't combine vectorially.

When you devise configurations with circulators, isolaters, directional
couplers, hybrids etc to "trap and reroute" reflected power, you have
probably changed the nature of the load on a line section and that
accounts for why the reflected power seems to have been isolated from
forward power.

Owen