Keith Dysart wrote:
Your suspicion is quite incorrect. Real-world generators
which present well defined impedances to the reflected
wave are common.

Please provide an example of an amateur radio transmitter
with a well-defined impedance seen by reflected waves.
If you had done that 30 years ago, the argument would
never have existed in the first place.

And your assertion that a lack of reflections will
result in a violation of the conservation of energy
principle is also incorrect.

One cannot have one's source power and eat it too.
If the reflected energy is part of the forward energy,
it cannot also flow into the source.

The equations you present above hold just as well
when there is no reflection at the source.

How can there be no reflection at the source when
the source is dissipating zero power?

If you don't think any understanding can be gained
from examples with ideal components, please read
no further.

If those ideal components are far removed from being
realizable in the real-world, you have yourself a deal.
Until you can provide an example of a real-world source
approaching a zero real-world impedance, there is no
reason to read any further. You might as well just say,
"God causes everything." and be done with it.
--
73, Cecil http://www.w5dxp.com