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by ffk 2938 days ago
My understanding is all frequencies interfere with all other frequencies. When averaged, the total power is probably not affected, but the power at any given point at a small enough time interval should be noticeable.

But then, I'm not an antenna designer, I may have something fundamentally wrong in my understanding. :)

1 comments

The problem is as soon as you're speaking of "frequency" you're already on a time-scale where the power doesn't interfere with other frequencies (as long as the medium is linear, etc -- which is almost certainly true here). In the mathematical/technical sense (in linear system theory)it's quite clear that different frequencies would interfere, it's a basic entire principle of linear circuit design that's been used for centuries -- systems have a Frequency Response where each frequency is independent as a result of the eigenfunction property. Personally I just think it's a big oversight, maybe they were trying to give a laymen explanation and confused themselves. What they're doing must be some form of phase modulation, maybe they're interpreting as short bursts of frequency modulation (with a stable steady-state frequency), but as I said this is not an illuminating view imo.

Edit: Actually I think they might have frequency control indeed. That would be a good idea to find a peak in frequency response (i.e. "resonant power transfer"), not for any directivity gains through constructive interference. That might be the source of confusion.