V-Soft Communications Newsletter: 12/15/05
In this Newsletter:
New Higher-Resolution Land Cover Database Now Available for Probe 3
End of Year Discounts begin today
SearchTV provides instant access to TVFile
FMCommander adds a new feature to only Plot outgoing contour overlap
Importing AM contours to Probe 3 without using AM-Pro
V-Soft announces the availability of a higher resolution land-cover database.
The land-cover database resolution provided with all previous versions of Probe, versions 1 through 3, was at the 1 km (or 30-arc second) resolution This database is identified as the Global 1 km Land Cover Data. V-Soft has recently obtained and processed a higher resolution U.S.G.S. database for the U.S. at a 200 meter (approximately 6 arc-second) resolution. This database is identified as "US 1:250k LULC 200m Data"
Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) data consists of historical land use and land cover classification data that was based primarily on the manual interpretation of 1970's and 1980's aerial photography. Secondary sources included land use maps and surveys.
LULC data is available for the conterminous U.S. and Hawaii, but coverage is not complete for all areas.
There are small areas in the U.S. where data is missing. In such cases,
the latest version of Probe, Version 3.36 (12-13-05) will revert to the Global
1km Land Cover Data, so both database must reside on your computer.
All LULC files are cast to the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) projection, and
were originally referenced to the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83).
The price to upgrade to the "US 1:250l LULC 200m data" is as follows:
1.) For V-soft clients on the Professional Technical Support Plan, $350 per license (multiple seat discounts are available)
2.) For V-Soft clients on Standard support the cost is $395.
3.) For V-Soft Clients not on a support plan, call our office.
Also, as announced in an earlier newsletter, V-Soft now has the National Elevation Datum (NED) terrain available for use with Probe, terrain 3D, Plotpath and other programs. This database is an improved satellite corrected database that comes in a 30 meter and a 3 arc-second resolution. V-Soft also has the NASA satellite radiometry data called SRTM. This is an excellent terrain database that is available for the whole world, and, because it was created using radar from space, it includes building and other man-made and natural objects. When used with the new LULC land cover database, Probe 3 coverage and interference analysis maps will be more accurate than ever before. For more information on V-Soft's terrain elevation databases click on the NED Terrain database link or the SRTM database link.
End of year discounts are now available through December 31, 2005.
The discounts apply to all V-Soft Products (including additional licenses or "seats" purchases. See our on-line pricelist.
1.) For V-Soft Clients on the Professional Technical Support Plan, discount = 10%
2.) For V-Soft Clients on Standard Support, discount = 7 1/2%
3.) For all other purchasers, discount = 5%.
Discounts are not retroactive. Call V-Soft at 800 743-3684 for more information.
The screen capture above shows the SearchTV database screen (TVFile) with the associated directional antenna window opened.
SearchTV users can now access the database screen (called TVfile) directly, without having to open SearchTV. To use this tool, create a new TVFile shortcut by right clicking your desktop, then click to "create shortcut" from the drop-down menu. Browse to the SearchTV executable. Once you find the executable, SearchTV, click "accept". Then change the name of the shortcut to "TVFile" and click "Finish". Then, right-click on the new shortcut and open the "properties" tab. Now add a command line switch; in the "target" area, add " /Data" after the quotes of the current target. (Note "/Data" is case sensitive) Make sure there is a space between the end quote and the "/". Therefore, if your SearchTV folder is under your Program Files Folder, the target would most likely be: "C:\Program Files\V-Soft\SearchTV\SearchTV.exe" /Data. Now all you have to do to quickly look up FCC TV database stations is to click the "database" shortcut. When this is done TVFile will load without having to wait for SearchTV to initialize.
New FMCommander outgoing only switch.
Many FMCommander users familiars with translators know that a translator can receive contour overlap but cannot cause contour overlap (except under certain 2nd or 3rd adjacent circumstances when it can be proved that no population can be found within the U/D defined overlap/interference area.) Previously, FMCommander would always map both outgoing and incoming contour overlap. The more contour overlap a translator receives the smaller its interference free service area becomes, so it's important to keep tract of incoming overlap to a translator, however such overlap is often found confusing to a client and irrelevant to the FCC. Consequently, V-Soft has added two switches to FMCommander that will allow the user to turn off the mapping of incoming signal contours. The "Plot Outgoing Only" switch on the "Find Station Information" screen will turn off the protected signal contour (60 dBu for translators) of the reference station and the interference contour of the database station. This switch also causes the FMOver printouts to only feature the table of outgoing interference.
The second switch is actually a check box which is found on the "Title for Channel Study" screens found off the program's Main screen. When the check box is checked the program will print only the outgoing column on the "interference printouts." This will work for output sent to a printer or to a text file.
Plotting AM contours on Probe maps
In our last newsletter, we discussed the steps to import AM contours into Probe from AM-Pro. If you are a Probe and an InterDLG user, but not an AM-Pro user, you may not know that Probe 3 (Professional) will input AM signal contours from InterDLG's duopoly module. Here's how:
1.) Using InterDLG create a "Map" in the vicinity of the AM station contour you wish to import.
2.) Click the "Duop" button. Then click the "List" button. Highlight the station or stations you wish to plot. To highlight more than one station hold down the "Shift" key.
3.) Click the "Ref" button.
4.) Click the "Save" button and name the DVS file an appropriate name.
5.) Open Probe 3, and select "New Study"
6.) On the "Create a New Study" wizard screen select "Import Study"
7.) On a next wizard screen, select Duopoly (DVS file)
8.) Then provide the name of the file you wish to import and assign the contour levels you wish to use.
(As you can see by the above screen, in addition to AM contours, FM and TV contours can also be imported into Probe 3 from InterDLG's Duopoly module.)
9.) Click "Next" and then select the color or other properties of the contours you wish to draw.
10.) Click "Finish" and Probe 3 will then draw a map having the contours you highlighted and selected from InterDLG's Duopoly module.
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