A simple DC example grossly clarifies thre issue: connect a 12V battery to the
series of a 50-ohm load and another 12V battery. How much current flows
through
the load? Naught (assuming the correct polarity). So no power is dissipated in
it.

Hi Tony,

Turn the second battery over. Double the power is dissipated in it.

Phase, you can't live with it, you can't live without it.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC

Of course. Mine was just a DC example to illustrate things in a simple manner.

When the transmitter is properly tuned, the phase relationship is such that the
reflected wave does not get dissipated at all into the 50 ohm output of the
transmitter, and is then reflected back to the antenna

Tony I0JX