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Richard Clark · May 1st 09, 11:47 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.antenna

On Fri, 1 May 2009 14:44:10 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

Jim & Richard,

I guess I'll retire gracefully because I'm not privy to the "history"
between individuals on this Forum and I'm now not even sure when
answers are to be taken seriously or as a joke.

Hi Steve,

You have now noted the greater contribution of comedy that inhabits
these discussions. Unfortunately, and as you indicate, those thin
jokes are rather in-bred.

Jim's most recent posting is a good example. We were talking about
measuring current along a dipole. I assumed that would mean measuring
the standing-wave current, but Jim introduced the notion of measuring
travelling wave currents.

Ah! The history you are unaware of (and it hides in the terms of
invention that populate the theories being assembled behind the
curtain) is that BOTH currents are under consideration. Unfortunately,
and you have the capacity to appreciate this, some characteristics of
one are migrating into the conversation of the other. Hence, we
return to the keyword: phase.

In one realm, phase is pointless, in the other, it has significance.
As the term phase migrates between the two, both realms' discussion
are polluted.

When challenged as to how we might do that,
we got a URL pointing us to a simple standing wave meter -

Not really. It is a simple current meter - the page literally shouts
that out.

it
certainly can't discriminate Forward and Reverse.

That is correct, but I mentioned such discrimination is possible from
the Bruene SWR bridge. As I wrote previously, no one measures forward
and reverse currents on antenna elements. Construction examples would
be rare.

With care and practice as offered at the link, which attends the
issues of error (largely dismissed from the greater consideration of
"measurement" proofs offered), the Bruene style could similarly be
achieved. It is neither a difficult concept, nor a technical hurdle.

From other postings I've read I take Jim to be a pretty knowledgeable
guy - so this has to be a wind-up, right?

Give it another thousand postings sprinkled over the decade to do
that. We have barely given up on fractal antennas.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC