[SCCC] "There's Something About the Voice"

[Steve]

At 09:04 AM 7/6/2021, Bruce Horn wrote:
>Software that allows you to change the pitch of singing is readily 
>available. Has anyone tried using it to "optimize" their voice for 
>SSB contests?

I can say that I can understand a man from Germany, France, Japan, 
South America, or just about anywhere else MUCH more easily than I 
can understand a YL speaking on SSB. Or 2m FM, for that matter, like 
the women on my local club repeater.

Once, my best friend and his girlfriend went on a road trip up north 
and into Nevada. He borrowed and installed my Kenwood TS-120S in his 
'67 'Vette along with his dad's Hustler mobile antennas. We'd have a 
sked every morning and most evenings wherever they'd stopped on 40m 
SSB. The first few times, he'd pass the mike to his girlfriend so I 
could talk to her, too. But her voice was so YL'ly that I couldn't 
understand her at all, so he stopped giving her the mike.

I've come across a few YOTA QSOs in those YOTA events but trying to 
discern the calls is extremely difficult with the boys, and just 
plain impossible with the girls.

At club meetings, during breaks when the room fills with the noise of 
lotsa guys breaking into small groups, I can sometimes join a group 
and understand someone with a deeper but relatively-soft voice. But 
unless they are particularly loud, let a higher-pitched voice like 
most YLs join in, and they might as well be speaking Timbuktu as far 
as I can understand.

My Elmer, W6GGV, once told me he'd "trained" his voice to stand out 
in weak signal conditions. Now that I think of it, face-to-face, he 
did have a way of projecting his voice so that I had no trouble ever 
understanding him, no matter the circumstances. I put that to tests 
several times when I went on road trips to places like the Sequoias 
and Three Corners (junction of Arizona, California and Nevada) and 
worked back to the LA area and up north to the Sacto areas on 2m and 
432. Hank was always one of the people I could tell was in there 
calling; others, several with high-pitched "squeaky" voices, I'd 
eventually figure out were calling but getting a signal report from 
them would be like pulling hen's teeth.

All this is why I don't work voice modes any longer.

SteveH, K0XP