A bit of banter on the 147120 Yahoo group lead to this exchange:
> > > No, I'm not pulling a chain. Unfortunately, it can
> > > be shown that muting or inhibiting does occur, but
> > > I have yet to find a real explanation. (+1)+(-1)=0
> > > is all well and good, but I 'm thinking of how that
> > > came to be.
> >
> > Assuming we want an explanation a bit more elaborate
> > than "because it was made that way!", give me a couple
> > of days to think this over. Note that I are not a
> > physicist, but I might be able to invent an
> > interesting tale.
>
> If you got some time....I would like to see that
> explained both in qed/qcd AND corpuscular
> physics....lol....can it really be done to a
> point of satisfaction?
So here is that story...
Hey, Clete. Remember when you asked why a balanced transmission lines does not radiate? Well, I've got the story for you, so pull up a piece of the floor and let's begin.
By the way, Cousin Ray and Uncle Tony are really smart guys, and will explain it all different to you. So, if they ask, just tell them that I said that this is a complex subject, and like the mathematics that describe the subject, this story has both real and imaginary parts.
First, we need to understand electrons. Not just know about them; but really understand their psyche. Electrons are just little bits of nothing that get a charge out of bumping into things. Their diminutive stature has never diminished their own sense of importance, though. As they go through life, about the only thing that mars their sense of self-possession is the fact that they, individually and collectively, are quite terrified of anything negative. At the first hint of trouble, they scatter like field mice before a hawk's shadow.
Now, you probably didn't know this, but what really makes that radio of yours work are the yo-yos inside. There really is a little yo'er inside, typically sitting in a bend of a wire loop, and he is really an accomplished synchronized yo'er. With a yo-yo in each hand, and with a synchronized left-in-right-out then left-out-right-in pattern, he can keep this up for hours. This yo'er is a bit of a demented practical joker, and has a frowny face (L. oscillum, "little face") painted on his yo-yos. Imagine the consternation to the nearby electrons when they see this Very Fast negative image swinging towards them.
While the radio technicians build the radios from schematics, the schematic designers get their inspiration from the cattle-chutes of the modern highway rebuild project. Anyway, these terrified electrons flee down the wires, constrained by the barriers. Of course, having one electron approach another has much the same effect as the frowny face. So while the electrons are crowding into each other to get away in one direction, the yo'er snaps back the yo-yo. Those poor elections, suddenly having know idea why they are rushing in the direction where so many of their friends are unhappily trying to get out of their way, now start crowding back towards the yo-yo, keeping of course a safe distance.
One of the delights of the yo'er, while keeping a steady rhythm, is to yo hard enough that some of the elections can't keep their balance, and tumble over the barricade. Whenever this happens, you can hear his great crackle of delight. These electrons, remember they are simple minded and self important, noticing all the free space around them, don their Sunday finest, shine their faces, and proclaim themselves king of all they can see. You can, if you are so inclined, join the yo'er in this perverse game of by sharpening the tips of your antenna wires—that constriction really trips up electrons. Curiously, the electrons themselves seem to enjoy this too, even to the point of calling the game crowna.
Now that we have accounted for the mechanism of electrons sloshing around inside the radio tank, we need to consider the effect these little guys when in parallel wires. For this, we need to understand the pheromonal side of the electron's behavior. Individually, an electron's pheromone is all but undetectable, at least to us large-nosed people—but we can sure tell when a game of crowna was just played in the area.
It seems but a friendly gesture when electrons wave to each other over the chute barriers of adjacent wires, but closer analysis shows that this seemingly friendly act is fundamentally the same as the fierce competitive pushing and shoving for space as happens as the yo'er is gaming the electrons. The faster the electron is traveling, the more unstable the pheromone produced, and so the effective length over which an electron's wave is noticed by another electron is considerably dependent on the speed of the secreting electron. I said that the waving is fundamentally the same as pushing—this conclusion is based on the observation that, within the half-life distance of the pheromone, other electrons flee in the opposite direction of a pheromone, just as when meeting an electron face-to-face.
A similar behavior is observed in some humans when, with much pomp and flourish, the train of their garments sweep all away, side and aft, in a manner befitting their perceptions of royalty. As noted, the farther the distance to the adjacent wire, the more reduced the cringe exhibited by a neighboring electron.
Now consider the effect of a great many of these electrons fleeing the yo'ers frowny-face yo-yo. When this crush of electrons goes waving by, naturally, the pheromonal aspect is intensified, so much so that not only do the poor fellows in front of the crush flee, those in nearby wires flee too, or at least cower behind the barricade walls. But don't forget that the yo'er has removed the frowny-face pressure on one wire path as he increases it on the other. This means that the crush of electrons in each wire path is moving in opposite directions. Thus each group, moving in opposite directions, has the effect of drafting the other's pheromones along behind, thus quite effectively encouraging the laggards to run faster.
The real purpose of the antenna tuner is, then, to adjust the path-length of these adjacent wires so that the electron crushes can move without becoming over-bunched. When the tuner is not adjusted to keep the electrons neatly moving, they spill over the barricades, engage in games of crowna, and generally raise a big stink.
Now when the balanced transmission line is split into a radiator and a counterpoise, something curious happens. Because the counterpoise is a like a large field to the crush of electrons so directed, they can spread out, loosing some of the urgency of their flight. But the electron crush directed to the radiating element, continues to surge back and forth with great urgency, all the while emitting the pheromonal essence. As there is no parallel line to draft this essence away, it floats along. If someone places a pheromonal detector athwart its path, one can regenerate a faint echo of the electro-crush at the receiving end.
It is left as an exercise to the reader to work out just how the ionosphere interacts with electron pheromones; but you can consider it to be a big can of air freshener.
Note that I have explained this with reference to the corpuscular nature of that fat little yo'er (and to what he views as his electro-minions) and hence, Q.E.D., we see that balanced transmission lines do not radiate much.