AMSTNS 4.6b & TVFMSTNS 8.7b

AMSTNS 4.6b TVFMSTNS 8.7b

2007.08.18

AM and TVFM Station Search Software

12708 Circle Drive, Rockville, MD 20850-3713 1-301-762-5838

The author disclaims all responsibility for any result of the use or misuse of this software and/or database.

See http://users.erols.com/rcarpen for further info.
Go to http://home.earthlink.net/~lvehorn for updated data and programs.

Operation with Windows Vista has not been verified.

TVFMSTNS ---------------------------------- AMSTNS (optional white background)

DeLorme SA9 --------------------------------------- DeLorme SA2005

-------- Google Earth --------

CONTENTS:

1: Main Features	6: Installation	11: The On-Screen Command Bar
2: Mapping Programs and GPS	7: FCC Data	12: The Choices Screen
3: More Information for Users	8: Printing From These Programs	13: Mexican State Abreviations
4: Create Output for Mapping	9: The Help Screen	14: Canadian Provinces
5: Requirements	10: A Sample Details Box

The following instructions generally refer to AMSTNS. Unless noted, they also apply to TVFMSTNS by changing "AMSTNS" to TVFMSTNS" in the command or file in question. "xxSTNS" is sometimes used to indicate applicability to both AMSTNS and TVFMSTNS.
1: MAIN SEARCH FEATURES:

These programs display the "interesting" data records contained in the FCC's AM, TV, and FM broadcast station engineering databases. The FCC AM and FM engineering comments are displayed, although it is said that the FCC stopped updating them early in 2000. The FCC database doesn't have Comments for TV stations. Directional antenna patterns are displayed.

Searching for stations is possible by state/city, state/frequency, frequency, call letters, and by geographic coordinates.

STATE/CITY - Stations within a chosen distance of the city/state are displayed sorted by frequency, and subsorted by state/province and city if there are multiple stations on a frequency. One can limit display to records changed after a chosen date.

STATE/FREQUENCY - Stations within the given state on the given frequency or channel are displayed.

FREQUENCY - Stations on the given frequency are displayed sorted by state/province and city-within-state. Filters are provided for direction, distance & date. Mexican states and Canadian provinces appear after the US states.

CALL - All stations matching the given first 2, 3, or 4 call letter characters are displayed sorted by frequency, and further sorted by state/province and city. For three-letter calls, append a <space> character to prevent display of all four-character calls that match the given first-three characters.

GEOGRAPHIC COORDINATES - Stations within a given radius of chosen geographic coordinates may be displayed.

AMSTNS and TVFMSTNS must be exited by their Alt-F4 command. Do NOT use Windows' "X" feature to exit.

Note: A 500-octet buffer is set aside for comments. The size of the largest comment is reported during the startup of AMSTNS and TVFMSTNS. Please notify me if the reported size approaches 500 bytes.

2: MORE DETAILS FOR USERS:

The command bar items across the top of the screen, plus the "Choices" and "Help" screens, provide information on the use of these programs. Refer the end of this file for sample screens. The mouse can be used to invoke most operations. The mouse left button can be clicked with the cursor anywhere on a "F# text" command to execute that command. When in the "choices" screen, you can click while the mouse cursor is anywhere on a line to simulate pressing the "F#" key.
Select a station for detailed display with the Up or Dn arrow or by left-clicking while the mouse cursor is pointing at the station in the right window.

For AMSTNS the Field feature allows the display of unattenuated field strength at one kilometer at any integer one-degree azimuth. This feature is toggled on and off with F9. One may choose to ignore the augmentation file for AM directional patterns. Augmentations are "fudges" to correct the predicted AM pattern to match reality. Unfortunately some contain gross errors and this option allows these few to be ignored. Press F3 in F10 Choices to toggle this option on/off. The azimuth is changed in one-degree steps by Left Arrow for counter-clockwise motion, and Right Arrow for clockwise motion. The step size is increased to 15 degrees for Ctrl-LeftArrow and Ctrl-RightArrow.

For TVFMSTNS F9 displays the field strength relative to the maximum.

These programs use a AMSTNS.PRF or TVFMSTNS.PRF file to carry settings over to the next time you run them. A sample PRF file will be installed. You will want to enter your home name and location as the SPCL location using the F10 CHOICES screen.

There are dozens of errors in the FCC's downloadable FM and TV CDBS files. Some are relatively easy to find, and some of these can be repaired. The conversion program that produces TVFMDATA.DTA attempts to find the correct state, and to correct interchanged latitude and longitude, and incorrect signs on latitude and longitude. If this fails, the place name and state are looked up in a Census Bureau listing of over 25,000 place names and coordinates. If there is a name/state match, the coordinates are substituted for the erroneous ones and they are marked as "guessed". These records are displayed by TVFMSTNS, with *UNK* as the distance in the right-hand box. A small number of places cannot be found in the Census list or a ZIP code directory. They are marked as "bad" and are NOT displayed by TVFMSTNS.

3: OUTPUT FOR MAPPING PROGRAMS AND GPS:

One can create files to plot all the displayed stations on DeLorme, Google (and other) mapping programs and Garmin mapping GPS receivers.

Street Atlas 2000 and newer products and other mapping software is supported by means of Latitude / Longitude text [TXT] files. The TXT output may be of interest to users of the earlier DeLorme software since they allow simultaneous display of AM, FM and TV station locations on the same map.

DeLorme Street Atlas Versions 3 through 9 are directly supported by the ability to create "Startup" files diectly in the Street Atlas folder.

Google Earth and Google Maps are supported by the ability to output in the KML format.

Points of Interest CSV files for Garmin mapping GPS receivers can be produced from the TXT output by use of the utility program TXT2CSV.EXE available from my http://users.erols.com/rcarpen web site.

The mapping output files can be created by xxSTNS by pressing F6 while displaying the desired data.

Then press R to create a Lat/Long text [TXT] file in C:\_STNS for use with recent versions of DeLorme Street Atlas and other mapping software.

Then press G to create a KML-formatted file in C:\_STNS for use with Google Earth and Google Maps. If you already have G. Earth, just double-left-click on the desired KML file in C:\_STNS.

If Street Atlas 3 through 9 are found, you are given the option of pressing S (or greater) to directly produce "Startup" (SAn waypoint) files which are written to the SA 3-9 File|Open folder. They will NOT work satisfactorily with newer versions of Street Atlas. xxSTNS only displays this output option if it can find an older version of Street Atlas on your PC.

The KML format output can also be used to mark transmitter locations on Google Maps. This requires that you upload the desired KML file to any web site where it can be accessed by Google Maps. Further instructions are contained in a Google Maps help file.
http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=41136
Paste this into your browser to read the instructions.

CREATE POINTS OF INTEREST FILES FOR GARMIN MAPPING GPS RECEIVERS.

The TXT2CSV.EXE program available from my web site converts the TXT files produced by xxSTNS to the CSV format for uploading to Garmin mapping GPS receivers. Place TXT2CSV.EXE in your C:\_STNS folder created by xxSTNS. DOUBLE click on TXT2CSV and then enter the names of the TXT files you want converted. Do NOT enter the trailing ".TXT" of the name. The CSV files will be placed in C:\_STNS. Exit TXT2CSV with an Enter without having typed any name. Use the free Garmin POI loader to place the CSV points into your GPS. It uploads all of the CSV files found in the folder you aim it at. See http://www8.garmin.com/products/poiloader/ for information about the loader.

SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR SA ver 3 to ver 9 ONLY.

The interface from AMSTNS to Street Atlas ver. 3-9 is by means of the G7TO.EXE 3.02.12, a freeware program by Ron Henderson, WA7TAS. G7TO is not required to output TXT nor KML format files. A copy of G7TO.EXE must be in the same directory as xxSTNS, and is automatically loaded there from the distribution. Earlier versions of G7TO may give the wrong icons, or worse. I have found that newer versions (such as G7TOA309) are too large to coexist with AMSTNS in a DOS or DOS-Windows environment. They can be used, however, to transfer SAn files created by AMSTNS to GPS units. The G7TO web site is:

http://www.proaxis.com/~crh/gps/g7to/g7to.htm

Important Note - Attempting to write a new SAn with the same name of the SA file that Street Atlas ver 3-9 is already displaying has no effect. This is because Street Atlas will overwrite your new information with the old info that it has cached. Any other operation may be done in AMSTNS, you just won't create a new version of the SAn file Street Atlas ver 3-9 is currently displaying. You can write a new version of the file that Street Atlas is displaying if you temporarily have Street Atlas display ANY other xxx.SAn file.

Setting the xxSTNS distance reference to STN can be used to resolve situations where too many transmitters are too close together for clear viewing in SA. Beyond six calls at a site, SA ver 3-9 ahows the marker in red.

OTHER MAPPING CONSIDERATIONS

The number of station records within a single mapping output file has been limited. Station are written into the mapping output files STARTING WITH THE HIGHEST-FREQUENCY AM or FM STATION. AMSTNS produces files with "M" as the initial character. TVFMSTNS produces files with "V" as the initial character. The file produced by a "City" search is Mxxxxxxx.TXT [or Vxxxxxxx.TXT], where xxxxxxx represents the first 7 characters of the city name; the file produced by a call search is M_xxxxxx.TXT [or V_xxxxxx.TXT], where xxxxxx represents the station's call letters. A separate file is created for each frequency searched: M1150.TXT V1051.TXT, etc. Read "SAn" or "KML" instead of "TXT" if either of those formats was chosen.

The geographic coordinates in the FCC files are claimed to be in terms of the NAD27 datum. Street Atlas and other mapping programs operate on the more recent NAD83 (WGS84) datum. xxSTNS does not attempt to covert the NAD27 data to WGS83. This used to be an xxSTNS feature but so many of the results were so questionable that the feature was dropped and the NAD27 values are plotted on the WGS84 maps. The results are "close enough" in most cases.

5: REQUIREMENTS:

A PC with 386 (operation without a math coprocessor is very slow), a 486DX66 or any Pentium is preferred, VGA or better display, Windows 3.1, 9x, ME or XP or MS-DOS 3.3 or more recent. AMSTNS and TVFMSTNS each require approximately 9 megabytes of hard disk space. AMSTNS and TVFMSTNS will run as a DOS program with Windows, just double-left-click on their EXE file. With XP you might have to investigate your CONFIG.NT or AUTOEXEC.NT

6: INSTALLATION:

Recent FCC CDBS data are generally available from Larry Vehorn's site http://home.earthlink.net/~lvehorn/ for downloading.

AMSTNS must NOT be placed in the same subdirectory or folder as TVFMSTNS.

6a: WINDOWS INSTALLATION:
These instructions are given in terms of AMSTNS. Substitute TVFMSTNS if you are downloading that.

1- Open "My Computer". Create a new folder named AMSTNS. Then either:

2- Download the AMSTNS program and data ZIP file from Vehorn's Site.

3- UnZIP the the downloaded AM ZIP file into the AMSTNS directory.

4- Within the AMSTNS Single right click on the AMSTNS.EXE application.

5- Left click on "Make Shortcut".

6- Drag the shortcut (icon) to the desktop if you wish. It should be the AMSTNS "tower" icon.

7: DOWNLOADING FCC DATA:

Recent FCC data and program versions are always downloaded together from Larry Vehorn's http://home.earthlink.net/~lvehorn/ site. .

8: PRINTING FROM THESE PROGRAMS (Windows 9x Only)

These printing instructions are thanks to Terry Palmersheim KC7LDP, and allow you to print the screen if you are displaying in Windows 98 and earlier. They do NOT work with Windows XP.

While the desired image is displayed, hold down Alt and press Print_Screen. This transfers the screen image to the Windows Clipboard. You may now paste it into a Word Perfect [WP] or MS Word document, or into another application that allows importing from the Clipboard.

Within Word or WP, I adjust the aspect ratio so that the pattern circles are round by clicking on the image and dragging on the top or bottom "pull" points. You can use Word's Format Picture to crop off unwanted parts of the image

In MS Word, you can change the background of the right side of the image from black to white by these steps

a) Click on ‘Show Picture Toolbox'

b) Click on the pencil-like thing (2^nd from right). That's the ‘make transparent' control

c) Bring the cursor down to the field containing the all the found stations and click the right mouse button to execute

NOTE: The last item within AMSTNS F10-Choices (Alt-F1) changes the screen background from dark to light. You may find that this produces better printed images. This option is not now available in TVFMSTNS.

9: HELP

THE HELP SCREEN

Press Escape to leave data entry box after the F3,4, or 5 without doing a search.
Use the cursor and ‘page' keys to select any station to view more info in the lower DETAILS box. Use F10 CHOICES for another reference for distances, units of measure, etc
Press F7 to make the currently highlighted station the Reference Station.
F8 changes the scale factor of the antenna pattern or shows towerstabular data in AMSTNS.
F9 toggles the "field at azimuth" cursor on or off. Move the cursor with the Right Arrow or Left Arrow. For 15 degree steps, use Ctrl Right Arrow and Ctrl Left Arrow.
Power is given in kilowatts unless the W is shown.

10: DETAILS BOX

The lower left corner of the screen contains the Details Box. The contents of its lines for AMSTNS are:

Line 1 - Frequency (kHz) ... FCC Class ... Call Letters ... Country ... State ... City of License
Line 2 - When Applies (day,night,CH) ... Power in kW unless W shown ... # Towers ... # Augmentations
Line 3 - Operating hours including those with other parameters.
Line 4 - Licensed, Construction Permit, Application, etc.
Line 5 - Geographic coordinates of antenna (NAD27)
Line 6 - Direction and distance from reference location.
Line 7 - Direction and distance from a station selected by F7.
Line 8 - Direction and distance from the average location of all stations of the City Of License.
Line 9 - Date of last change in FCC records (Antenna System Date) FCC number of antenna system

The content of the details box for TVFMSTNS are:

Line 1 - TV channel & offset ... or ... FM frequency & channel &class ... Call ... DTV if TV
Line 2 - State and City
Line 3 - Max Effective Radiated Power ... Polarization ... Beam-tilt
Line 4 - Antenna radiation center height above average terrain and its height above sea level
Line 5 - Maidenhead Grid Location ... Geographic Coordinates in NAD27
Line 6 - Full Service/Translator.etc ... FCC Application Record Number
Line 7 - Licensed, CP, etc ............. Expiry of CP
Line 8 - Licensee
Lines 9 - 12 - Same as lines 6 - 9 in AMSTNS

11: ON-SCREEN COMMAND BAR

The top line of the screen has a list of the basic commands. These are invoked by the Function Keys or by clicking on the command with the mouse. The commands are:

F1HELP F2About F3City F4State F5FreqCallGeo F6WrtSA F7RefSTN F8Scale F9Field F10CHOICES altF4EXIT

F1 - Display the Help screen shown above.
F2 - Display the "Legal" info about AMSTNS or TVFMSTNS.
F3 - Displays a box for entry of City name. If a state has not yet been selected, the entry box for State is shown first. The Esc key allows escape without changing an existing entry.
F4 - Displays the entry box for a state name. After entry, the City entry box is shown. A frequency or channel may be entered instead of city. The Esc key allows escape without changing an existing entry.
F5 - Display the entry box for frequency, call, geographic coordinates to be searched.
F6 - Write a mapping output file.
F7 - Sets the currently-highlighted station as the reference station for distances, etc.
F8 - Changes the scale of the pattern plot or shows just the towers [AMSTNS only].
F9 - Toggles the display of field strength at chosen azimuths on and off.
F10- Display the Choices screen.
Alt-F4 (or Alt-F10) - Quit the program and return to the operating system.

The Status Line shows a number of program status parameters.

12: THE CHOICES SCREEN

Notes about some of the choices:

F8 Toggle Reference Location...... [one of the three possibilities] Special, Reference Station, City of License
F9 Modify special location: [enter place name and geographic coordinates] At the end of entire entry press Enter
Ctrl-F3 Plotting delay (to suppress plots while slewing with slow processor).. [0-4000]
Alt-F1 Toggle screen background between light and dark. May improve printing [AMSTNS only].

13: MEXICAN STATES

AG Aguascalientes	BN Baja CA Norte	BS Baja CA Sur	CH Chihuahua	CI Coahila
CM Campeche	CS Chiapas	DF Dist Federal	DU Durango	GR Guerrero
GT Guanajuato	HG Hidalgo	JA Jalisco	MC Michoacan	ML Morelos
MX Mexico	NA Nayarit	NL Nuevo Leon	OA Oazaca	PU Puebla
QE Queretaro	QR Quintana Roo	SI Sinaloa	SL San Luis Potosi	SO Sonora
TA Tamaulipas	TB Tabasco	TL Tlaxcala	VC Vera Cruz	YC Yucatan
ZA Zacatecas

14: CANADA and OTHER PLACES: (Other places AMSTNS only)

AL Alberta	BC British Columbia	MB Manitoba	NB New Brunswick	NF Newfoundland
NS Nova Scotia	NT North Territories	ON Ontario	PE Pr Edward Island	QU Quebec
SA Saskatchewan	YT Yukon

BD Bermuda

BF Bahamas

BV British Virgin Is

CU Cuba

SB St Pierre & Miquelon

TC Turks & Caicos

FILE NAMES

After installation, the AMSTNS should contain the following files:

AMSTNS.EXE	The main program.
AMDATA.DTA	The main data file.
AFREQ.IDX	Indexes of all data entries by frequency.
ASTATE.IDX	Index by state/city.
ACALL.IDX	Index by call.
AGEO.IDX	Index by geo coordinates.
AMENGTOW.DAT	AM directional antenna tower data.
AMENGAUG.DAT	AM directional antenna augmentations.
AMENGCOM.DAT	AM comments.
AMSTNS.PRF	Stores preferences between times that AMSTNS is run.
G7TO.EXE	Henderson's freeware that transfers data to Street Atlas 3-9.
AMSTNS.ICO	Icon for Windows installations.

The TVFMSTNS directory should contain the following:

TVFMSTNS.EXE	The main program.
TVFMDATA.DTA	The main data file.
FMFXDA.DAT	FM directional antenna data
TVDADB.DAT	TV directional antenna data
FREQ.IDX	Indexes of all data entries by frequency.
STATE.IDX	Index by state/city.
CALL.IDX	Index by call.
GEO.IDX	Index by geo coordinates.
FMCMNTS.DAT	FM comments. The FCC has no TV Comments for download.
TVFMSTNS.PRF	Stores preferences between times that TVFMSTNS is run.
G7TO.EXE	Henderson's freeware that transfers data to Street Atlas 3-9.
TVFMSTNS.ICO	Icon for Windows installations.

These programs may operate faster in full-screen mode. You may want to try <Alt-Enter> to toggle to and from full-screen mode when using Street Atlas.

These are DOS programs which must be in full-screen mode when operated under some versions of Windows.

PKUNZIP.exe may be used by this program and in its installation. The entire PKZIP distribution package is available from the various SIMTEL mirror sites as the self-extracting file PKZ204G.EXE. Registration information is included in the PKZ204G.EXE package.