SUMMARY
In the paper the problem of optimal damping of the waves - traveling along the cable in a span and reflected - by the active distributed damping force segment located near the support is analyzed. The string equation is chosen as a model of the vibrating cable. As an objective function of the optimization problem the energy dissipated by the damper force is assumed. The damping algorithm is based upon the expression for the optimal concentrated damping force. The distributed force is assumed to be proportional to the component of the cable velocity resulting from the superposed motion of the original running and the original reflected waves. The original running waves are assumed in the form of packet waves with amplitude modulation. Illustrative numerical results demonstrating the optimal damping coefficients are included.