Arrangement for discriminating speech signals from noise

An audio squelch circuit uses spectral analysis of the audio signal to derive two test signals, one of the two indicating speech presence "energy" and the other "voiced" speech presence. The two test signals are logic-AND combined to decide speech presence and open the squelch gate. Detection of speech in the audio signal, composed of a voiced segment which is both preceded and followed by a non-voiced (consonant) segment, is improved by correspondingly lengthening the "voiced" test signal pulse with both earlier (anticipatory) initiation by a time interval "D," and with a later (prolonged) completion by a time interval "d".