[SCCC] Phone Skimmer in Alpha Test

[Michael S. Mitchell]

Happy April 1 Dennis!


-----Original Message-----
>From: Dennis Vernacchia <n6ki73 at gmail.com>
>Sent: Apr 1, 2015 9:23 AM
>To: SCCC Reflector <sccc at contesting.com>
>Subject: [SCCC] Phone Skimmer in Alpha Test
>
>In a message dated 4/1/2015 11:27:26 <calendar:T7:4/1/2015 11:27:26> GMT
>Standard Time, n4zr at contesting.com
>writes:
>
>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 <calendar:T2: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
>
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>
>
>
>Sent from my "STINKIN" Samsung Galaxy S4
>
>
>-- 
>Sent from My Stinkin I Phone !
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