Cedar Falls, IA - Dec 8, 2008 - V-Soft has recently has acquired a new terrain database to use with FM Commander, Probe 3 and other V-Soft programs that access terrain. The database is the actual NGDC database used by the FCC. When using this database and the new vsvbtsvr.dll, provided with the last FM Commander and FMCONT program updates, and by setting the HAAT Method to 0, users can get the same numbers as the FCC. V-Soft says that its new numbers typically match the FCC's FMOVER reports to 0.01km.

V-Soft has invested a significant amount of research time identifying the correct FORTRAN code (in the deep recesses of the FCC vaults) and getting the Commission's confirmation that the code it found was the exact code the commission used for a given process. V-Soft notes that it discovered that the FCC uses three different distance algorithms for FM technical regulatory processing.

The V-Soft FCC30SEC.DAT 30 arc-second terrain elevation database, which is a direct conversion from the FCC's database, includes come patches where the FCC added corrections in converted feet instead of original meters. We have also found that for FMOVER HAAT calculations the FCC is still calculating radials from 2 to 10 miles, not 3 to16 km as the rules read. Also, V-Soft that the commission is using only 51 digital elevation points along a radial instead of a higher resolution approach of using a point every 0.1km.