From the main screen insert the power in kilowatts, the antenna height in meters above mean sea level.
Append an "F" to the COR height if you want to input the height in feet. CONTOUR will quickly convert it to meters.
Insert the latitude and longitude.
The format for coordinate input is either (DD MM SS) or (DDMMSS). No commas or dashes are required between degrees, minutes and second.
If you have a directional antenna pattern to assign to the reference station, click the Directional check box and then click the Pattern button.
Input the channel number. For TV this will be between 2 and 69, while for FM this will be between channel 200 and 300.
To access the FCC database, click the Acquire button on the top right-hand side of the main screen. When this id done the "Parameters Setup Screen" will pop up. Here you can select a station from the V-Soft FCC database.
1. Select TV or FM database radio button.
2. "Tab" to the Match field (or click the input box with the mouse)
3. Type in the station call sign, city, licensee or other parameter
4. Click the Find button
5. Click the Next button to move to the next match if necessary
6. Click the Accept button
If you click the "Search by State" check box you should then enter the desired state to which to confine the search. When the "Search by State " box is unchecked the program will search the entire FCC database.
The "Load" button allows the user to load the parameters previously saved by CONTOUR or another V-Soft Communications program.
The "Save" button will save the current station's parameters, including the DA pattern if any, to the reference file.
Select Study type, FCC (Standard procedure) or PTP (Point to point)
Click the radio button that indicates the number of radials you wish to use. Next, use the "Number of Contours" slider to select the number of signal contours you wish to produce. As you do this, you will see two text boxes appear on a separate line for each of the signal contour you selected. The first text box is for the desired signal level in dBu while the second text box is for the FCC's time probability factor. For example, the F(50-50) is set by placing one of the following numbers in the second text box, ".5", " 5" or" "50". The F(50-10) is produced with any of the following: ".1", "1" or "10", finally, the F(50-90) DTV service contour is produced with a ".9", "9" or "90". Once you input the signal levels then click the View Button or View Table menu item to process and view the results.
For a viewed output, CONTOUR will shell to your selected word processor with your table. You may simply view this data or you can edit it, format it and print. If you select a printed study.
If you select the menu item "Print" CONTOUR will send a printed output to your printer. For more information, see "Printing."
If you select "Save Plot File", under "the main menu item "File" CONTOUR will produce a distance to contour "plot-file". This can be loaded by other V-Soft programs, including Probe and InterDLG. Plot files are ASCII and they have the extension ".PLT.
You may customize your print out by following the procedure detailed under "Printing."