New reporting code for digital communication

The use of the traditional RST system for signal reporting is almost meaningless for digital modes.

Following the idea of the team VK3BGH, K6MBY, GM4KLN and W8NUE, the Austrian Society recommended to the IARU Region 1 Conference the introduction of the RSQ-digital signal reporting system. The Q replaces the T in CW reporting and denotes quality.

How Do I Sound? That seems like an innocent question and it's easy to slip into non-technical terms, like "scratchy", "warm" and so forth. If one is serious about giving a meaningful response, though, some forethought is required. For scientific voice-quality evaluation, a uniform system that gauges subjective responses is necessary.

A wide variety of factors influences perceived voice quality, including amplitude and frequency distortion, echoes and noise. Anything detracting from the naturalness of speech increases the effort a listener must exert to understand what is being said.

For signals that are significantly impaired, the annoyance experienced by a listener may be rated on a linear scale called mean opinion score (MOS). Some examples are 5 = excellent, 4 good while 1 is given for a totally unusable signal.

Details of the RSQ system will in the near future be taken up in the IARU HF Manager's Handbook.

Source: The South African Radio League

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