[CQ-Contest] Contesting Technology - Phone Skimmer Nears Beta Test

[donovanf at starpower.net]

Congratulations to the author of this classic Larson E. Rapp April 1st article! 

73 
Frank 
W3LPL 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Doug Scribner" <dscribner at twc.com> 
To: cq-contest at contesting.com 
Sent: Wednesday, April 1, 2015 12:49:10 PM 
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Contesting Technology - Phone Skimmer Nears Beta Test 

A coincidence that this was released on April 1st... 

I think not... 

>From Leroy Jethro Gibbs on NCIS... 

Rule 39: "There is no such thing as coincidence." 

Doug - K1ZO 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pete Smith N4ZR" <n4zr at contesting.com> 
To: "CQ Contest" <cq-contest at contesting.com> 
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2015 6:04 AM 
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Contesting Technology - Phone Skimmer Nears Beta Test 


> To CQ Contest: This press release appeared in PY1NB’s mailbox a few days 
> ago.The original was written in Esperanto, presumably to disguise the 
> national origin of those involved, but we have managed to get it 
> translated, and believe that the news it transmits is too important not to 
> pass it on. 
> 
> 73 
> 
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
> 
> April 1, 2015 Teresopolis, Brazil 
> 
> _Phone Skimmer in Alpha Test_ 
> 
> Thanks to an anonymous NSA computer scientist who is presumed to be a 
> radio amateur, working computer code for a Phone Skimmer has been made 
> available to a clandestine development team, and will be released for beta 
> test to the amateur radio community in coming months.It promises to bring 
> to phone contesting and DXing the same incredible capabilities that VE3NEA’s 
> CW and RTTY Skimmers have brought to those modes. 
> 
> It was long thought that the decoding problems posed by human speech, even 
> with the limited vocabulary employed by radio amateurs, rendered a 
> workable automated system beyond the reach of anyone but the NSA and their 
> competitors in the shadowy world of signals intelligence.Fortunately,as 
> predicted by Moore’s Law, recent developments in microprocessor 
> architecture such as Intel’s new Skylake series have made it possible to 
> move voice recognition and decoding from a massively-parallel-processor 
> environment to a relatively straightforward 32-core CPU.The development 
> team believes that within a few months PCs running these CPUs under 
> Windows 10 will be able to begin serious beta testing. 
> 
> Lest readers question whether the new Phone Skimmer is just more 
> vaporware, the development team has been using alpha test versions of the 
> software since last fall’s CQWW SSB contest.While the testers are not yet 
> ready to disclose their identities, the emergence of some new calls in the 
> top ranks of phone contesting since then demonstrates the impact it can 
> have. 
> 
> At the same time, the developers wish to emphasize the challenges that 
> remain before the phone Skimmer can reach full potential.Testing against 
> phonetics in different languages, as well as English phonetics when 
> pronounced by non-native speakers, has brought out some of the hardest 
> issues.High accuracy in copying the International phonetics Juliet, Kilo, 
> Lima, Romeo and Golf, for example, will probably depend on rapid lookup in 
> Super Check Partial files and online licensing databases to help 
> accuracy,Similarly, numbers like Five and Nine pose special challenges, 
> and may lead to initiatives to do away with signal reports altogether in 
> contests. 
> 
> The development team has asked me to represent them in the media, to spare 
> them the bombardment of e-mails from radio amateurs from Ireland to 
> California to Thailand, so they can get the product ready for beta release 
> as soon as possible.Please bear with us as, once again, technology moves 
> forward! 
> 
> 73, 
> 
> Larson E. Rapp, WIOU 
> 
> Ludditeville, WV 
> 
> _______________________________________________ 
> CQ-Contest mailing list 
> CQ-Contest at contesting.com 
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest 
> 

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