This screen is the heart of SEARCHTV. It displays in a tabular fashion the minimum spacings the FCC requires between television of stations. You may re-size this screen to fit your screen resolution by simply dragging a corner. If under "Settings", "Screen Fonts" "Auto Size " is selected the program will automatically increase or decrease the font size to fill the window. You may select fonts and font sizes manually by un-checking "Auto Size" and then by selecting the font name and font size by clicking "Select Fonts."

Each station the program lists will have a frequency and distance relationship with the reference station. Left clicking a given station's row with your mouse will immediately take you to the "Find" screen where the listing will be displayed in detail. When engaged in a translator or LPTV study a right click on the screen causes the program to establish the exact antenna heights between the reference coordinates and the database station's coordinates as well as apply any directional patterns the stations use. A "right clicked" station will have an asterics appended to the call letter. Any further changes in power or antenna height of the reference station will not affect the "right clicked" station in the list because it has been "fixed." If either power or antenna height are changed the user must "right click" to turn off the "fix" and then right click again to reestablish the new "fix".

Minimum spacings and required distances:

SEARCHTV displays a table of stations that have a frequency and distance relationship with your reference station's location and channel. The "Dist" column lists the distance a given database station is from the reference station, while the "Azi" column lists the azimuth from true north of the reference station towards a given database station. The "FCC" column is a listing of the minimum spacings or distances in kilometers required by the FCC. The "Margin" column lists the distance between the edge of the minimum spacings circle and the reference's transmitter site. In the default mode the stations are listed in sort order of the smallest margins (or critical relationship stations) first. The sort order can be changed from a menu to provide screens with stations listed in channel order. Digital stations may be displayed with a range of a lower to a higher number such as KDSM-D above... "<12.0 > 106.0" In this case the reference must be less than 12 km or greater than 106 km from the database station.

Drop-down menus

The File Menu :

Load:

Loads a previously compiled channel study. All channel study files created by SEARCHTV have the .tel extension. Job files are saved automatically when new studies are run from the "Reference Screen." When "Load" is clicked a menu will appear showing the last four files studied and a "Load from Folder" menu item which when selected will allow you to load any previously compiled job file from your hard drive.

Print:

Selecting this menu item will cause the program to display the following menu:

Selecting "Print Current Channel" will send the resident channel study to the printer. Clicking the "long Form" box will cause the printout to display licensee, coordinate, file number and antenna COR information in three lines for each station.

If the "Preclusion" box is checked SEARCHTV will print a channel by channel report of all the stations or applications that prohibit the reference station from meeting the minimum spacings rules.

The "Area Within Study" will print a list of all FCC records within a given distance from the specified reference coordinates.

"File Usable Area Study" causes the program to record to disk drive a file of stations and their minimum spacings that can be used by other V-Soft Communications programs such as InterDLG.

"File Area Within Study" files all FCC records within a distance of the reference coordinates regardless of their frequency assignments.

Clicking the "Fonts" button will allow the user to select the font name and size for the printed reports.

Clicking "Printer" allows the user to select the printer to be used for the printouts.

The title boxes allow for up to two titles to be printed at the top of SEARCHTV printouts.

Clicking the "Ref:" menu causes the reference menu to drop down. From here the user can bring up the reference parameters input screen where the reference facilities can be entered or selected from the included TV database. This screen is used to make produce a new study job file.

"Reference Type" allows the user to select either a DTV, NTSC or LPTV type study.

"Zone" establishes the location of the reference facilities, zone 1-3.

"Offset" establishes what type of channel offset the reference station will use: "+", "-", "Z" or "N" (also a blank offset.)

The "Main" screen view shows the required FCC spacings or contour protection distances. The column labeled "FCC " shows the minimum distance in kilometers that the FCC will allow between stations of the assigned classes, while the column labeled "Margin" represents the positive or negative distance available between the required FCC distances and the actual distances available.

Big Map:

Clicking this menu item will cause the program to display the "Big Map" screen. This screen maps the minimum spacings required for the classes involved and allows the user to interact with the reference station's transmitter location with a click of the mouse.

Database Screen:

The "Database" screen provides access to the actual FM state database files (as opposed to the study's job file.) Here the user can query the database for a specific listing or compile a list of certain stations meeting the demands of a give query. This portion of the program will allow the user to alter a given record in the FCC's root database or to create a new record.

Find Screen:

The "Find" screen provides access to any of the stations selected in be included by the computer within a given job file. You can use the "Find" screen for a number of purposes, including, searching for specific stations and editing the station's operating parameters. The pro version of SearchTV includes an allocation map that automatically maps out the protected and interfering signal contours of a database station having a frequency and distance relationship.

There are numerous other ways to move to the "Find" screen as well. A left click to any station in the listing on the "Main Screen" will cause SEARCHTV to display the " Find" screen with the details of the station selected displayed in the "Find" screen list box. If you click the SEARCHTV heading that begins with "Call", SEARCHTV will display the "Find" screen with the reference station selected.

Side by Map Screen:

This menu item takes you to the "Side by Map" screen which combines a text display of the channel listings and an interactive map. Many, but not all, of the tools found on the "Big Map" screen are duplicated on this screen.

Display Margin Kilometers:

Use this menu item to change the number of stations shown on SearchTV's screen displays. A larger margin value will show more stations in screen displays and printouts.

Round:

This menu item is a switch which causes all FCC required distances to be rounded. This feature should only be used with displays showing all spacings because the FCC does not allow interference signal contours to be rounded.

Hide LPTV:

If this menu item is activated, the program will remove any non class A LPTV stations from all SearchTV displays.

Fonts:

Use this menu item to select from two choices "Select" and "Auto Size ". Use "Select" to choose a font type and font size. When "Auto Size" is selected the program will automatically select a front size depending on the size of the Main Screen window. We recommend using a true font such as MS Sans Serif or Arial. Other font types may work but may not scale properly. Note than when a font is selected you may have to adjust the Main Screen window length. To do this use your mouse to drag the lower right corner of the Main Screen window so that the bottom of the window is lined up immediately below the word "More"... which will appear when a screen has displayed 18 stations or more.

Sort by Channels:

Select this menu item to cause the program to sort all displays in channel order. The default display is sorted by the values given in the "margin" column.

Clicking on "Move" brings up a scroll that allows the user to jump to another non-sequential channel.

The user should note that the "V##" keyboard command will also cause the program to jump to channel ###. The "N" key advances the channel number by one while the "B" decreases the channel number by one.

The "Seek " menu item will cause the program to start at the lowest TV channel and work its way to the highest channel looking for openings at the reference coordinates. SEARCHTV will then display the first channel it finds without serious overlap. If there are more than one channel identified SEARCHTV will display a "next" button which the user can click to view all the channels identified in sequence.

">" Moves up one channel while "<" moves the reference channel one channel lower. The "B" and "N" keys also perform these functions.

Clicking "Help" or pressing "F1" will bring up the hypertext help screens.