"Art Unwin" wrote

Thank you very much for the addition supplied. I never really
understood why hams could not accept this.
_______

Not just hams, Art.

Skin depth applies to a-c energy flowing along a conductor. The same
principles of physics apply no matter to which end of a conductor that
a-c is applied.

That is, the a-c energy reflected from the unterminated end of a
conductor will travel on its outside for the same reason it traveled
on the outside of that conductor when first applied to it, at its
other end. Fractional wavelength conductors and your "equilibrium" are
irrelevant to this.

The center conductor of rigid coaxial transmission line used in the
broadcast industry is hollow, because it can carry the same amount of
a-c energy as it could if it was solid (and costs/weighs a lot less).

RF