STANDING-WAVES ---EER6/6/2013

At the time of my family moving from the front range of the Colorado Rockies twenty-two years ago, I was
driving solo east across the plains from the Denver area and I was driving an International Scout which
contained only an AM radio. When I left my home in Boulder Co., I began listening to one of the local AM
radio stations and because of the intense focus on the driving, and watching closely the overloaded pulled
trailer, I did not change to other AM broadcast stations when the one that I was listening to faded out. I
continued driving across the open plains and much to my surprise the original station returned in strength and
readability, only to again fade in strength and then return. These signal patterns occurred a number of times
before this same broadcast station faded completely as I continued to travel east into Kansas. I believe the
reason that I had even noticed this effect was because during prior months and years I had been studying
Teslas, Colorado Springs Notes with his references to Standing Waves.
A number of years later, while living on the east coast in Maine, I was able to observe another interesting
phenomenon while listening to the NOAA weather broadcasts at 162 MHz. on the VHF spectrum. I was
listening to the NOAA transmitter, which is about 12 miles away, with a small handheld transceiver as I walked
around the outside deck on the second floor. It was then that I took note of the signal strength changing up and
down as I moved about the deck. As I placed the HT (Handheld Transceiver) on the deck railing and moved it
about I observed that the distance between signal strength peaks corresponded to the signal frequency
wavelength. It struck me as rather curious that I was observing the peaks and valleys of standing waves from a
VHF radio frequency (RF) source transmitter over 12 miles distant. I placed a large pine board on the deck
railing in longitudinal position to the mountaintop transmitter and nailed it in place. Then by moving the HT
across the board I marked the positions of the peaks and nulls of the 162.475 MHz. signals. For many weeks
and then months I checked the HT signals for the node and anti-node positions as they corresponded exactly
with the same VHF wavelength distances as marked on the pine board.
Having operated VHF mobile for many years both in Ham radio and Volunteer Fire Dept., I was well aware of
the so called picket fencing. This occurs when the mobile or portable signal at the receiving end becomes
weak and begins to fade out and as the mobile/portable moves so that we hear a peak and null in the received
signal. In fact, we get accustomed to moving around slightly to improve reception when under more remote
conditions.
While observing the receive conditions as I moved the HT over the fixed pine board on my deck, I noticed that
if I tilted the receiver angle as I moved across the board that I could trace out the whole wavelength by simply
changing the antenna polarity. In other words, I could follow the peak of the signal simply by changing the
polarity of the HT as I moved across the board. Then I needed to look at this a little differently, the small deck
off of the kitchen did not allow enough flexibility for my experiments. So, I set up an IFR 1200s spectrum
analyzer on the front lawn connected thru coax to a portable adjustable antenna. Then I was able to move all
over the lawn within a thirty-foot radius and still be able to listen to the audio and watch the signal strength
meter of the IFR. Once again the spectrum analyzer was tuned to the nearby NOAA continuously broadcasting
weather transmissions of 162.475 MHz.

I was able to observe the same phenomena as was seen with the HT only now with a wider and more flexible
range. Because I knew the proper direction toward the transmitter, I could find the peak of the signal strength
and then move toward the signal source while seeing the dip or null and then continuing again to a peak. While
moving across the lawn I could observe and hear the peaks and nulls thru a number of wavelengths, all
corresponding to the calculations from the known frequency of 162.475. Now I had the ability to move with the
antenna and observe the received signal as a three dimensional construct by rotating the movable vertical
antenna as I moved toward the signal source while maintaining a peak in the signal strength. Or in other words,
I was changing the right angle of the antenna as I moved too and fro in line with the longitudinal axis of the
transmitted signal and observing a three dimensional standing-wave construct in the space surrounding.
The idea of measuring an electromagnetic standing wave pattern at far field distance from the transmitter did
not fit with my understanding of the EM phenomena as taught in the technical field of study. I went
immediately to all of my old still-saved textbooks from college. I went to the much used Fredrick E. Terman
classic of Electronic and Radio Engineering and much to my surprise I found no mention of what I had been
observing. It was all about passing radio waves with one half being electric energy and at right angles the
magnetic energy. In the McGraw-Hill, Encyclopedia of Physics, it was about electric and magnetic fields
moving outward from a region where electric charges are accelerated. Not a thing about standing-waves
patterns observed at the antenna and its surrounding space far from the transmit site.
While tracing thru the Encyclopedia of Physics, I decided to look at the description of a standing wave. A
disturbance which is oscillatory in time and which has an amplitude that varies in space between zero and a
maximum value. Standing waves may be formed near an ideal boundary by the interaction of incident and
perfectly reflected traveling waves. Standing waves are a limiting case of stationary waves. These occur when at
least one of the enclosure terminations absorbs a part of the energy of the incident waves, as well as reflecting a
portion, resulting in a net power loss from the source.
What I was observing with the IFR and antenna was not showing a zero signal but was remaining as a peak
signal reading as long as I kept the antenna rotating at right angles to the longitudinal path toward the
transmitter as I moved across my lawn. If I had been within a few wavelengths of the transmitter, within the
near-field, I would have not been surprised with seeing the standing wave pattern. However, my house is many,
many, many wavelengths from the transmit tower with its vertical antenna. It began to occur to me that it was
possible that the present-day understanding of radio waves, therefore EM waves, was in error, and in fact not
having a true understanding of the wave nature. If my understanding of standing waves or stationary waves is
correct as stated in the textbooks, then there has to be a reflected wave back toward the transmitting antenna and
therefore another type of communications taking place which has not been given consideration.
I began searching the science literature to try and find an answer to my observations. About a couple of years
ago I did find a couple of writings in which the authors were suggesting that EM (radio) waves were really
transmitted in spiral form and during this past year a number of researcher have discovered and written on the
subject of OAM. (Orbit Angular Momentum). They are even finding that they can transmit multiple modulation
schemes on the same frequency while using different common polarities of sending and receiving antennas for
multiple information transfers. It becomes quite exciting to consider that not only is it possible to find great uses
for our EM information transfer but it might offer a greater information detection and exchange from our solar
system, galactic and cosmic EM signal reception.