Congratulations to the author of this classic Larson E. Rapp April 1st article!
73
Frank
W3LPL
----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Scribner" <dscribner@twc.com>
To: cq-contest@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@contesting.com>
To: "CQ Contest" <cq-contest@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@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
>
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