[CQ-Contest] Voice Automation Enhancements and the future

[Eric Hilding]

Mike, WV2ZOW wrote:

 > So Eric is developing full voice automation.

I am only one of several folks whacking away at chunks of the "opportunity" 
pie :-)

 > What then would be the difference between operating a phone contest vs. 
a CW contest?
 > Only the ability to copy CW.

Not entirely, IMHO.  Phone rates per hour are much higher than CW rates, 
and it will take a number of "customized" operational short messages that 
can be triggered real fast to maximize the rates.  But if a person can 
learn CW, and learn to type on a keyboard, then learning how to operate 
several banks of push buttons to do serious voice-automation can also be 
learned.  Just as some folks still practice CW with the paddles, serious 
voice-automation contestors will have to do some practicing with their keys 
(in this case, banks of buttons).  But that's where color-coding and 
segmenting button placements become critical more maximum efficiency.  I'm 
only a v1.0 of what will probably take re-arranging & re-arranging to v7.0 
before things work well.

HA!  Learning how to effectively use a 35 or 40 button "New Generation 
Voice-Keyer" can probably be likened to learning how to play a musical 
instrument !!!  Certainly very similar to using a typewrite.

 > Next step is voice recognition/CW recognition. If
 > the computer does the copying, then there would really be no difference
 > between a phone or CW (or for that matter, digital mode or digitized
 > voice)contest. Any thoughts?

HA!  Considering the difficulty already experienced in a DX contest with 
dialects, speech patterns, etc. (throw a heavy dose of QSB on top), I think 
this is a longggggg way off into the future.  QRM problems with SSB vs. CW 
add to the complexity of any type of incoming speech 
recognition/conversion.  Have you tried a 250Hz filter lately on a heavily 
QRM'd DX station with Arctic flutter and very broken English? :-)

Depending upon your ERP, SSB contesting can also require some different 
approaches than CW.  Getting the Robot-sound minimized with SSB 
voice-automation is the biggest challenge.  Another difficulty in 
voice-synthesized delivery is that I don't think certain 
"energy/inflection", etc. will have the same punch.  W1VE and I are 
swapping emails and bouncing around some ideas around.  I find it all 
pretty exciting and am so glad Gerry is hacking away at this stuff too.

73...

Rick, K6VVA