Attenuation and Successive Reflections of Traveling Waves

This paper describes the method followed in separating out the individual waves from the oscillographic record of the voltage at a transition point due to the superposition of several successive reflections. The separation is necessary in determining the attenuation of the waves on the transmission line. In the past it has not been unusual to find the reduction in the crest value of each successive reflection attributed to attenuation, whereas the major cause of such reduction was reflection at the terminal equipment. The paper discusses a class of lattices which offer a simple and convenient means for keeping track of successive reflections, so that the position, direction, and previous history of each separate wave may be ascertained at any instant of time almost at a glance. The reflection and refraction operators are defined and applied to specific examples. A few oscillograms of successive reflections are analyzed and a number of attenuation curves has been plotted.