Converting Galois Field elements to binary?

[Andreas Yankopolus]

I'm trying to convert Galois Field elements to binary. For example:

>> gf([43],6)

ans =

GF(2^6) array. Primitive Polynomial = D^6+D+1 (decimal 67)

Array elements =

   43

How do I get at that 43 as a decimal? The goal is to convert the elements to binary for mapping onto different signal constellations, such as octal for 8-PSK. So something like:

>> bitand(gf([43],6), 7)

For the low-order bits and:

>> bitshift (gf([43],6), -3)

For the high-order ones. But these both give invalid operand type errors. I see that:

>> class(gf([43],6))
ans = galois

But I'm not sure how to use this fact. I see some lists of Galois Field member functions, but there's nothing obvious that converts elements to decimal. Octal would be fine as well.