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

To: Contest List <cq-contest@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Contesting Technology - Phone Skimmer Nears Beta Test
From: "Mike Ritz, W7VO" <w7vo@comcast.net>
Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2015 01:18:31 +0000 (UTC)
List-post: <cq-contest@contesting.com">mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
Let me throw my 2 QSOs worth in here! 

Having to process and decode SSB is like having to listen to somebody using a 
bug vs an electronic key vs a straight key on CW. All are different, and I 
personally have the most difficult time with the bug guys with the very long 
"dahs"! So it is the same in SSB. There are a variety of native languages and 
their associated accents when conversing in English. There are guys with hum on 
their signals due to poor power supplies or poor power line regulation, 
propagation flutter, over-processing, and even YLs. You work them the best you 
can, and move on! The thing is that everything is the same for everybody, and 
is just a part of contesting. The guy that can decode the best and most 
accurately, and fastest, with the most QSOs wins! 

I did tell one guy that his signal had a bunch of audio distortion on it, and 
another that he had more 60 Hz than signal. They both thanked me, and I moved 
on. 

Now, the jammers, and guys that don't ask if the frequency is clear before 
calling CQ are a different matter! ;-) 

73; 

Mike, W7VO 

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

From: "Jim Brown" <k9yc@audiosystemsgroup.com> 
To: cq-contest@contesting.com 
Sent: Friday, April 3, 2015 12:34:53 PM 
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Contesting Technology - Phone Skimmer Nears Beta Test 

On Fri,4/3/2015 11:25 AM, Marijan Miletic wrote: 
> Five years ago there was a hope that mature speech recognition technology 
> would be applied to limited vocabulary hamradio contesting. It has become 
> April fools joke instead sadly illustrating dumbing of our hobby. 

Having just endured another weekend of truly awful audio with WPX SSB, I 
couldn't even get my ear/brain to decode many of them. I heard at least 
50 stations with audio so badly distorted, muffled, or wildly 
overprocessed that I could not copy them, and at least a hundred more 
where the poor audio quality made me take twice as long to complete the 
QSO. 

I'm not suggesting that we don't use processing/eq/compression -- these 
are excellent techniques if done WELL, but they destroy speech 
intelligibility if done badly. I run my K3 with the three lowest 
frequency bands set for maximum cut and some cut of the fourth (400 Hz) 
band. The remaining bands are set flat. I have compression set for 10 dB 
on peaks, and I carefully set computer playback level so that the radio 
is not overdriven. 

PLEASE -- the next time you are setting up for a SSB contest, either 
listen to your own audio on another rig or get another ham to listen 
critically to your audio. 

73, Jim K9YC 


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