V-Soft Communications Newsletter: January 22nd, 2009

In this Newsletter:  

V-Soft to be at NAB 

Probe 4 Progress Report

V-Soft Wecomes Lisa Erickson

V-Soft Software Training Deadline Approaching

New Version of Sun DTV Allows Nightlight Studies

FMCommander's New Features

V-Soft Updates 'Conductivity'

FCC activities of interest

V-SOFT Schedules NAB 

Visit the V-Soft NAB booth #N4617 during the NAB show in Las Vegas,  from April 18th to the 23rd. See all the new features, preview the premiere release of Probe 4 and provide V-Soft programmers with your ideas about new features and programs. Sign up for a free VIP exhibit, courtesy of V-Soft Communications by using our VIP registration number LV1741 and use this link to register:

 http://registration.experient-inc.com/ShowNAB091/Default.aspx

Probe 4 Progress Report 

In our last newsletter we reported that work on the new Probe 4 continues and the new version has many new features including the ability to use dual or quad core computers for faster calculations and map rendering, the ability to copy, paste and duplicate objects on the map (such as text boxes, legends and logos), a brand new terrain profile viewer incorporating many user requests, ability to move city names on a map, ability to use new 'guides' to line up screen objects, ability to cancel grid-based calculations while in progress, ability to assign differing cutoffs values and colors to the signal areas of multiple stations on a map and you can have several transmitters share one cutoff, ability to zoom the map to any scale previously used.

Latest features to be added include:

Point Search Tool - This map tool allows the user to click on a location on the map and generates a sortable distance list of all nearby items (things like cities or ASR towers).  Then more information about an item can be found by selecting it in the list.  There is also an option to add the item to the map - for example if there is a city in the list that the user wishes to be labeled it can be done by simply clicking an "Add to Map" button.

Service Counting - A new service counting tool allows users to quickly determine the number of services at locations within a given area (based on contours).  This information can then be plotted on the map and used to generate population reports for user defined service levels.  The primary advantage of this is that it makes working with large numbers of stations possible (any number of stations can be included), allows an unlimited number of 'services' to be counted, and is considerably faster than the service counting abilities of Probe 3.

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V-Soft Welcomes Lisa Erickson as Software Support Specialist

Lisa comes to V-Soft Communications from the Cedar Valley Catholic Schools where she reported to the Director of Education.  She has worked at The CBE Group Inc, in Waterloo, Iowa and Network Control of Waverly, Iowa. She is a Graduate of the University of Northern Iowa where she majored in Management Information Systems.  She is also a summa cum laude with Honors graduate from Iowa Lakes Community College. Lisa replaces Adam Puls who has moved on to another company. 

V-Soft software training Deadline, February 2, 2009!

In the past, our 2-day seminars have been a real hit with our software users, potential users and others who just want to learn how it is done.  The seminar price is usually around $350 depending on the number of people we have.  V-Soft must pay a fixed fee for a hotel meeting room rental and a fee for a minimum of 22 breakfast and luncheon meals each day, so we need to know as soon as possible if you have an interest in attending.  The seminar is held on Saturday and Sunday on the two days immediately preceding the start of the NAB conference. If you are interested in attending our training seminar, please contact Kate at kmichler@v-soft.com  (800 743-3684, Ext 14)  before the February 2nd, 2009 deadline. We need a minimum of 12 registrants by the deadline in order to have the critical mass of attendees that will help cover the costs, so call now to sign up or to learn more about broadcast engineering training.

Previous Training Seminar:

New Version of Sun DTV Allows Night Light Studies

We have released a new version of V-Soft's on-line SunDTV interface as of January 16th, 2009. This version allows calculation of interference caused by NTSC transmitters  that remain on after the DTV transition cutoff date.  This version of the program will read interference to digital stations down to the 0.1% level.

The new version can be downloaded here: http://www.sundtv.com.

FM Commander's New Features

Build 39, New Features

    Arrow, terrain profile, label, Internet Map, and Internet FCC ICONs turn red when the icon function is in use
    New ICON files provided with this update should be placed in the FMCommander Folder if doing updates manually
    Added a new menu item on main screen under the "Settings" menu see "Show failed 73.215 as contour-to-contour". This menu item causes the 'Interference mode' main screen and printouts to show contour-to-contour values instead of how short the minimum 73.215 spacing is. This can be used when a station does not meet 73.215 short space distance but it is grandfathered.
    The registry now saves the selected Internet Map service. Look on the "Find Information' screen. Internet map selection then defaults to the last selected mapping URL.
    The Reference screen Topo Icon and the Separations Mapping Screen now bring up Acme Mapper, which marks the site. (Internet Mapping requires the Internet mapping module.)
    Added True North Bearing for Table Mountain reports when interference may exist is detected.
    New menu item under "Channel" Main screen, "Original" menu item returns the computer to the reference channel on which the original study was performed.
    On "Find Information", Screen, "Restore Original Parameters" now changes the channel back to the original channel - works for reference and database stations
    When restore is used in the "Separations Mapping" window, program now keeps the map scale at the same setting
    Class, power, HAAT warnings now work in the 'Minimum Separations' mode when "Minimal Warnings" is turned off under setup.
    Class, Power, HAAT warnings now work when changing a database station from the job file
CTRL Z and CTRL R hot keys text added to Undo and Redo menus as a reminder of their use for undo and redo respectively.
    Hide menu command removed from Pattern editor window, replaced by allowing standard window minimization
    If pattern editor window has been minimized, clicking the small pattern graphic on the Find Information page will restore the pattern window to full size

Build 40, New Features

    Both maps screens can be extended to fill screen.
    Added Wide screen menu item on "Find Information Screen". This forces wide screen map if window is enlarged
    Added "Wide Screen" check box under "Views" on Defaults menu under Miscellaneous tab.
    Wide screen allows the user to fill the entire screen with a map, by stretching window.
    Separation's mapping screen is placed in the "Wide" mode by checking "Wide Screen" under Defaults - Miscellaneous tab, Views. Note when in the wide screen mode screen maps show graphics in the anisotropic mode.
    When wide mode is turned off screen maps are shown as isotropic.
    If a station is directional its pattern will be superimposed over its coverage or interference map.
    If station is directional and plotting coverage, the directional pattern will also be displayed in the printout
    The Hide/show menu item will toggle the pattern off and back on if desired by the user.
    When the Views --> 'Show DA Patterns on Maps Menu Default' item is checked program will always show pattern graphic over map unless the "Hide/Show" menu is clicked or the pattern is right-clicked
    Once checked the Show DA Patterns on Map Menu Default' item will always default to the selected setting

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Conductivity Update