Cecil Moore wrote:


The interference phenomenon is well understood in the field of
optical physics and is a very useful tool in that field. The
principles are the same for RF waves. Why not use the tool?
Incidentally, optical physicists are NOT dancing on the head
of a pin when they calculate the irradiance of the bright rings
and dark rings.

Cecil,

I don't recall just how you became such an expert on optics, but your
proposed use of constructive and destructive interference is not the way
to calculate bright and dark rings. Great for handwaving explanations,
or textbook explanations, but close to useless for detailed calculations.

In the real world most most problems of interest are not simple one
dimensional set-ups with ideal lossless components. All of your nice
power equations with cosine cross-terms get completely unwieldy in the
real world.

Do you even wonder why you seem to be the pioneer in trying to apply
constructive and destructive interference to HF problems? Do you suppose
that no other smart folks ever thought along the same path? Do you
suppose there is a reason why essentially all of the textbooks and
scholarly writings on transmission lines virtually ignore constructive
and destructive interference for detailed calculations?

You have recently demonstrated that you can get exactly the same answers
as Keith, Roy, and others. However, beyond satisfying your own needs,
you have demonstrated exactly nothing in addition to the results
available from conventional analysis. That is dancing on the head of a pin.

There is really no particular need to discover "where the power goes".
The equations for ordinary classical physics are self-consistent. If one
gets the fields analyzed correctly, or equivalently the voltages and
currents, then energy and power will take care of themselves. You simply
will not find a case where all of the forces or fields are worked out
correctly but the energy is not conserved.

73,
Gene
W4SZ