Searching for television channels is an easy job when you use SEARCHTV™. This program will perform DTV, NTSC full service, VHF and UHF channel searches using FCC spacings. For analog and digital LPTVs and translators, SEARCHTV applies the Commission’s U/D contour protection requirements using the actual antenna height in the direction of the station of interest. The program distinguishes between full service to full service protection (DTV and NTSC), LPTV to full service protection and LPTV to LPTV protection. Television contours are predicted using the Commission’s TVFMINT algorithm from the three sets of dB tables published in F.C.C. Report RS 76-01 by Gary Kaligian. Spline interpolation is used to provide speed and accuracy in interpolating channels 2-6, channels 7-13 and channels 14-69 dB tables. The F(50-90) signal distances are created using the actual FORTRAN code used by the Commission for DTV so the results seen in out tables accurately match the Commission’s tables.. The program will access either our V-Soft Communications 03 or 30 arc second terrain elevation databases. SearchTV is packaged with the most recent CDBS TV databases as well as TV and DTV allocations databases.
SEARCHTV’s map and tabular displays (and print-outs) deliver the existing amount of clear-space distance or the amount of overlap based on the DTV/NTSC, DTV/LPTV spacings and the U/D requirements published in Commission’s Sixth Report and Order and under its existing NTSC minimum spacing rules. One of SEARCHTV’s views displays A next to a tabular display of the same channel. For translators, offset frequencies may be used and the U/D ratios for database stations using offsets are automatically considered by the program.
The patterns of any directional TV stations SEARCHTV finds are transparently accessed by the program and used in the calculations. Directional patterns can be accessed, displayed visually and edited if desired. Land Mobile stations with UHF television channel assignments automatically appear in channel searches.
Doing a search or LPTV upgrade with SEARCHTV is simple. Just enter in the geographic coordinates and type of station, i.e. DTV, NTSC or LPTV. If an LPTV or translator search is chosen the program will also require an input of antenna height and power. SEARCHTV takes over from there. Referencing a state ordered indexed database, the program uses a geographic grid system to pick out only those states from the database that are within an appropriate distance. That’s SEARCHTV’s secret to its tremendous speed. Most searches take only a second or two to complete. When the computer has gathered the data from the database, you then have completed a search of not one channel, but all channels at the search coordinates. You can page through each of the channels from two to 69 as easy and as quickly as you page through the pages in a book. Once you have looked at a given channel study, you may recall it to the screen at a later time simply entering its channel using the channel scroll.
The SEARCHTV main screen tabular display (shown above) and its map screen are resolution independent. Simply drag the corner of the screen and SEARCHTV reacts by increasing or reducing the font size to accommodate your new window size.
Left-click on a station’s listing on the main screen and SEARCHTV’s “Find Station Information” screen pops up with additional information about the station you clicked:
Click the “Map” button and SEARCHTV will map out the pertinent arcs contours of the reference station’s interference signal and the protected signal contour of the station you selected. (See below) Click the “Coverage” button and SEARCHTV will plot out the city grade coverage of your selected station. The “Radial” button will place 36 cardinal radials on your reference station’s transmitter site for the purpose of allowing you to make pattern adjustments along certain azimuths. The “City” and “Cities” buttons place large and small population cities on the map if desired.
Print-outs can be directed to the printer at any time and include SEARCHTV’s map graphics as well as a channel’s tabular listings. An automatic print-out function is available to print-out all channels in the television spectrum to produce a complete hard-copy record of each of the channels studied in the search. SEARCHTV’s hard-copy print-outs feature the parameters of the station being checked, (reference station) which are printed in the heading. A listing is printed for all those stations having a distance and frequency relationship. The listings include, power, antenna height, geographic coordinates, bearing and distance from the reference and the distance to the interference and protected contours, information regarding antenna polarization and beam-tilt. File numbers and licensee names are also included, as well as information on whether the station operates commercially or non-commercially.
SEARCHTV is fully interactive allowing the operator to instantly model the effect of changes in the power, antenna height, frequency or geographic coordinates of the reference station or any of the stations in the search job file.
SEARCHTV comes with a built-in multi-purpose television database manipulation routine. Using this you can query the complete television or DTV database and produce lists. For example, the program will print a list of all applications within a given state, or a list of all stations on a given channel or all stations in a given city. Such lists may be sent to your printer for hard-copy or displayed on your video monitor. If you wish to modify the FCC record of a given station, the power, antenna height, etc. may be changed from within the program and saved
Through our technical support program, we offer toll-free telephone support, and a daily, weekly or bi-monthly FCC TV database update service via the web or by mail… with program updates.
SEARCHTV follows the traditions of simplicity and user friendliness as established in all V-Soft Communication products. A help screen is always available summarizing SEARCHTV’s compliment of commands and procedures and the program comes with a complete reference manual.