New-York tribune., 1922-05-21
Predictions of
Static Pest
Exaggerated
Their Dire Warnings About
Terrible Effects. From
Summer Static Are Not
Based on Experience
Close Tuning Reduces 1t
Static Will Be Troublesome
but Not Serious and Can
Be Cut by Adjustment

mist has been stalking abroad in the
land of radio preaching disaster by tine
mighty hand of static. In fact, his
constant preachments have wrought
the average radio fan into state of
bewildercd frenzy and terror over the
anticipated results of the terrible bug
bear.
static" declares the radio pessimist,
with a sardonic grin and significant
rod, "and then you will see how unde-
yeIoped radio really is. Wait until you
get discordant jargon of sounds right
in the midst of your favorite selection
and you will be ready to shrow your
collection of junk out of the window in
despair-unless you are incapacitated
through sheer madness before you can
do it,"
Now this sounds very terrible-and
like the rest of you have been listen
ing to it on every hand for the past
seven or eight weeks. Let US therefore
reason this thing out and see where we
get off, In the first place, we haven't
suffere&! any material damage so far
from static, have we? Up to the pres
ent, therefore, we have experienced
nothing to get alarmed about.
Prediction Based on Assumption
Let Us go still further and take ex
perience as our guide. Most of the
pessimists are basing their predictions
on assumption and what they have
heard. Mot of them live in the vicin-
ity of cities where broadcasting sta
tons have only been in operation for
u few months at most. They forget
that in Pittsburgh a regular broadcast
ing station has been in active daily OPP
sration for more than year. Static
has not pu. the receivers in the neigh
borhood OF the steel metropolis out of
business. Far from it; the residents
of the Smoky City are more enthuslas-
tic than ever over radio. after more
than twelve months experience with it.
Broadcasting is no new thing. The
only new thing is the general public
interest in it. Ever since the develop
ment of the radio telephone to a point
of good performance there has been
broadcasting of one sort or another,
but. of course. it did not get upon an
organized basis until the big CONNER
cial stations were operating.
Before that time the amateurs were
engaged spasmodically in broadcasting
for other amateurs, and they did it
mighty well. Static did not seriously
Inconvenience them
Having said this much, it would not
he q bad idea now to explain some
thing about static and its characters-
tics. In the first place, stated roughly,
static is lightning in the making. 1t
consists of accumulated charges of
electricity which are stored in the at
mosphere, not large enough in ca
pacity to break down the air resistance
and find Il path to the earth.
They are stored up just like charges
m the plates of a condenser, and like
the latter. some Of the charge leaks
across the di-electric--or air. In the
case of static this leakage takes place
along the aerials of radio stations
wherever they are erected, and the
passage Of the charge is recorded in
the telephone receivers. These static
charges are so broad and cover so
mary different wave lengths that they
penetrate almost all tuning adjust
ments.
The peculiar thing about static is
that it is most prevalent in tropical
countries. In northern latitudes it is
most prevalent in summer, and always
worse after dark than during the day
time. Its effect upon the telephones
ranges in tone from harsh. rasping
sounds to mushy squeaks, and when it
is really bad it is continuous through
out the night without any let up.
Static Worst for Telegraphy
Such are the general conditions OF
static. For the purpose of wireless
telegraphy static offers a very serious
problem, because of the constancy OF
: the sounds which reproduce the dots
And dashes. and also because of the
fact that the static gets in between
the dots and dashes. making it almost
Impossible to distinguish them.
So far as radio telephony is con.
cerned. however. do not think tina,
static will be nearly so serious. In the
first place, telephony by means of radio
is only possible by means Of continu
are used in the ether we get extremely
sharp tuning, which in itself is quite
helpful.
Secondly, we are dealing with voice
and music sounds, and these vary il
pitch and amplitude, so that the hearel
does not have to concentrate on one
pitch and pick up dots or dashes.
fully believe that with careful tuning
the voices and music will ride clear
above the static. but OF course careful
tuning will have to be used-and that
will come with experience.
Tips To Be Followed
In this connection there are some
useful tips that it would be we'll to
observe when static does come in bad
ly. In cases where static is abso-
futeiy at its worst would advise the
radio fan who is using two stages
Of radio-fnequency amplihcation tenn
rorarily to give up the luxury of q
loud speaker and be content TO wear
he telephone head receivers on those
particular nights.
The reason for this is that the am
plifers amplify every current that is
passed through them; and the static,
being of more volume, is amplifed more
than the music and speech. The re-
suit is that music will be clearer on
the detector alone than it is on the
amplifers.
Another tip is to reduce the amount
o. current passed through the fla
ments of the vacuum tubes to the low
est possible amount consistent with
results. This will tend to reduce the
effects Of etatic. because the more cur
rent passed through the tubes the
yporo tho efa%