The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-05-21
OF
 THE STATIC PEST
 ARE EXAGGERATED
Dire Warnings About Terri. bIe Effects From Summer Static Not Based on
 Experience


 the mighty hand of static. In fact, his constant preachments have wrought the average radio fan into state of bewildered frenzy and ter TOT over the anticipated results of the terrible bear.
 Wait until you set the summer static" declares the radio pessinaist, with a sardonie grin and 2 signifi- cant nod. "and then you will zee how undeveloped radio really is. Walt until you get A discordant jargon of sounds right in the midst of your ,favorite selection and you will be ready to throw your collection of junk out of the window in despair unless you are fncapacitated through sheer madness before you can do it"
 Now this sounds very terrible and like the rest of you I have been listening 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 suffered any mate rial damage so far from static. have we? Up to the present. therefore. we have experienced nothing to get alarmed about.
 Predictions Based on = ssumption
 Let us go still further and take experience as our guide. Most of the pessimists are passing their pre- dictions on assumption and what they have heard. Most of them live in the vicinity of cities where broadcasting stations have only been in operation fer a few montht at most. They forget that in Pitts burgh a regular broadcasting station has been in active daily operation for more than a year. Static has not put the receivers in the neighbor- hood of the steel metropolis out of business Far from it; the residents of the Smoky city arc more enthusi- astic than ever over radio, after more than twelve months experience with 1t.
 The only new thing is tho general public interest in it. Ever since the development of the radio tele- phone to a point of good performance there has been broadcast sting of one sort or another. but. of course, it did not get upon an organized basis un- til the big commercial stations were operating.
 Before that time the amateurs were engaged spasmodically in broadcastin for other amateurs, and they did it mighty well. Static did not seriously inconvenience them.
 Having said this much, it would not be a bad idea now to explain something abot static and it's char acteristic.,. In the first place, stated roughly, static is lightning in the making. It consists of accumulated d charges of electricity which are stored in the atmosphere, not large enough in capacity to break down the air resistance and find . path to the earth.
 They are stored up just like charges on the plates of condenser. and, like these latter. some of the charge leaks across tho di-electric-- or air. In the case of static this leakage takes place along the aerials of radio stations wherever they arc erected, and the passage of the charge is recorded in the telephone receivers. These static charges are so broad and cover 30 many different wave lengths that they penetrate all tuning adjustments.
 The peculiar thing about static is that it is most prevalent in tropical countries. In northern attitudes 1t is most prevalent In summer. and always worse after dark than dur ing the daytime. It's effects upon the telephones ranges in tone from harsh rasping sounds to mushy squeaks and when is really bad it is continuous throughout the night without any let UT.
 statfe Worst For Telegraphy
 Such are the general conditions of static. For the purl ose of wireless telegraphy static offers a very se- rious problem. because of the con- stancy of the sounds which reproduce the dots and dashes, and also because of tho fact that the static gets In be- tween the dots and dashes. making it almost impossible to distinguish them.
 So far as radio telegraphy is con- cerned, however. I do not think that static will be nearly so serious. In the first place, telephony by means Of radio Is only possible by means of continuous waves, and where contin- uous waves 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 in pitch and amplitude, so that the nearer does not have to concern trate on one pitch and pick ur 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 ex- periencs.
 Tips To Re Followed
 In this connection there are some useful tips that it would be well to observe when static does come in badly. In cases where static is ab- soiutely at it's worst I would advise the radio fan who Is using two stat ics of audio frequency amplification temporarily to give up the luxury of a loud speaker and be content to wear the telephone head receivers on those particular nights.
 The reason for this is that the ann plifiers amplify every current that is passed through them; and the static, being of more volume. is ann plified more than the music and speech. The result is that music will be clearer on the detector than 1t is on the~Amplifiers.
 Another tip is to reduce the amount of current passed through the filaments of the vacuum tubes to the lowest possible amount con- sistent with results. This will tend to reduce the effects of static. be- cause the more current passed through the tubes tho .- ore the stat ic Is increased in intensity as conn pared to the music.
 Above all. adjust your tuning ham dles very carefully and very slowly and you will finc that static sis not nearly SO bad as 1t is painted by the spessimists.
 
 WOULD BOOST FORD
 Huntsville. May 0.-(special. )-A movement has been started here tc