INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS

In conducting the first experiment which was

about the Wave Propagation in a Transmission Line
Demonstrating the Effects of Losses, Attenuation and
Standing Waves, we were able to be oriented and
introduced practically on what we have been
discussing in our lecture class regarding the
Transmission Lines used as communications media.
From the results obtained, the amplitude of the
travelling pulse which was dependent on the amount
of output voltage from the generator supplied to the
transmission line demonstrator (TLD), and was
determined due to the number of lights that lit up in a
column. Pulse propagation on TLD was determined by
the orientation of the step input, that the propagation
followed the terminal point directed by the step input.
When it comes to Attenuation and Dispersion, it
was noted that the rate of the pulse propagation or
transmission was accounted to the amount of
distributed attenuation in the TLD, that as the
distributed attenuation control was set at maximum
level, the pulse propagation became slower. That was
accounted to the effect of the attenuation on the
transmission media where in the attenuation blocked
the transmission of pulse from one point to another,
thus resulting to a lossy line. On the other hand, the
decreased in the attenuation was not only done by
controlling the distributed attenuation knob, but also
was accounted to the decreasing of frequency, that
resulted to fewer frequency components causing less
distortion of the pulse brought by the attenuation. It
was also noted that in a backward attenuation, the
propagation of pulses as it was being transmitted was
always dependent on where the load terminator was
located, regardless of the orientation of the step
input, in order for the maximum power transfer to be
achieved, since the characteristic impedance of the
transmission line was equal to the purely resistive
load terminator.
When it comes to Line Terminations, a perfectly
matched transmission was accounted at the instance
that the characteristic impedance and the load were
equal, thus the voltage remained constant
althroughout as the pulse propagated. And since the
load was a purely resistive load, all of the pulse that
was propagated and entered the line from the source
was dissipated at the load. That kind of line
transmission was also considered to be a line
termination at a short circuit link, where there was
already a reflected pulse that was seen and that was
accounted to the zero value of the resistance while
the current was at maximum value. While when pulse
were terminated at an open circuit link, the pulses did
not propagated back and that was accounted to the
maximum value of resistance and minimum value of
current, where the maximum resistance stored the
pulse in the distributed inductance and capacitance
and the line acted as a resistor that dissipated all the
energy and none was returned back.