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

To: n4zr@contesting.com, cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Contesting Technology - Phone Skimmer Nears Beta Test
From: Ktfrog007--- via CQ-Contest <cq-contest@contesting.com>
Reply-to: Ktfrog007@aol.com
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2015 07:36:29 -0400
List-post: <cq-contest@contesting.com">mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
 
O brave new world, Larsen lives.
 
I just saw him down at the K-Mart the other day.  Looked hearty and  
healthy, but wouldn't look me in the eye.
 
73,
Ken, AB1J
 

 
 
In a message dated 4/1/2015 11:27:26 GMT Standard Time, n4zr@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 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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