  This paper proposes a new family of recursive systematic convolutional codes,
defined in the non-binary domain over different Galois fields GF(q) and
intended to be used as component codes for the design of non-binary turbo
codes. A general framework for the design of the best codes over different
GF(q) is described. The designed codes offer better performance than the
non-binary convolutional codes found in the literature. They also outperform
their binary counterparts when combined with their corresponding QAM modulation
or with lower order modulations.
