K7ITM wrote:

In typical Cecil fashion, you trimmed out the only part I really cared
about having you answer: "Assuming the two "waves" existed
independently at some points in space, you'll have to first tell us
_exactly_ what was done to combine them into one wave." Depending on
how _I_ do that, I can get various answers, since some power goes
elsewhere in some of the methods, but I _never_ get more power out of
a steady-state system than I put in. Barring stupid math mistakes,
anyway.

*No matter how* you combine two waves in space or a transmission line in
such a way that they add, the process will result in other regions in
which they cancel, and vice-versa. The result is the correct net power
in the *whole system*. Long ago I issued a challenge for someone to
describe a system for which this isn't true, and re-issued it recently.
No takers.

Attempting to apply the law of conservation of energy, or anything else,
to one region while ignoring the others is certain to lead to bogus
conclusions, as we've seen over and over.

Roy Lewallen, W7EL