Import the FCC Frequency Database into Engineering Software
Obtaining accurate tower geographic coordinates, antenna height, and authorized frequencies has long been a challenge for designers of radio systems. Now the FCC has placed all this information on their web site so that it can be used for coverage predictions, interference studies and many other types of studies. For many years, once an engineer did his best to locate all the necessary information locally, engineers had to manually enter all the geographic coordinates, antenna height, frequency, power and other details into their rf design software in order to perform engineering studies. SoftWright has now created a Facilities Exchange File format that facilitates the transfer FCC records of land mobile radio, microwave, and other engineering details from the machine readable records of the FCC directly into a simple way to view the data and also to immediately process radio coverage maps, microwave path design and intermodulation studies. Percon Inc. provides access to a daily updated FCC database using either a metered or annual subscription basis. You can have all the latest available engineering details on all licensed and proposed radio facilities at your fingertips and update as often as you like with no recurring fees for data.
What the Softwright Facilities Exchange File Format Specification Can Do For You.
PerCon Corporation is a developer and publisher of government related databases on CD-ROM and online, specializing in FCC, FAA and geographic data. We provide products to the telecommunications, aviation, government, commercial and hobby markets. PerCon Corporation provides a fee based web access , CD-ROM and DVD access to all FCC engineering and licensing records. Online databases are updated daily.
The SoftWright Facilities Exchange File format fully supports the capability of painlessly importing all of the engineering specifications needed for propagation studies into the TAP software. This eliminates manual data entry and errors associated with that process. If you are using engineering software such as SoftWright's TAP program, you can generate thousands of microwave profiles in batch mode with no data entry as well as easily create as many coverage maps as needed within a region to evaluate the comparison of various radio systems. The database that is imported through this process will include land mobile radio, cellular, PCS, SMR, marine, aviation, public safety, amateur, business, industrial, microwave, auxiliary broadcast and almost every other type of wireless radio services.
Here are a few examples demonstrating the power of this new standard.
Example 1: Identifying Transmitter Locations for Optimal Performance.
You need to provide coverage for an entire county. Using PerCon, you download every license and application located in that county. This includes engineering detail for every location, antenna, and frequency located in that county. This can be done with a dozen or so keystrokes. Alternatively, you could import all data within a radius, a rectangle, etc. PerCon makes it very easy for you to import this data into SoftWright's TAP engineering software. With just a few more keystrokes, using TAP, you can now run an accurate analysis of every radio coverage in the county to determine what combination of locations will give you optimal coverage. You have the potential to generate thousands of studies for an entire county, rectangle, radius, etc. without having to do the laborious manual data entry.
Example 2: Locating Interference
You are experiencing interference on your land mobile or microwave system. Using PerCon, you import license detail directly from the FCC for every licensee transmitting within a specified radius of your transmitter site. This only take a few keystrokes. You then export this to SoftWright's TAP engineering software which in turn can calculate and plot interference areas between existing and proposed radio facilities. Once again, you do all of this with very few keystrokes while eliminating the need for the extensive error-prone manual data entry.
Example 3: Generating Microwave Path Profiles
Your company has microwave systems throughout the U.S. You want to generate path profiles for all of them. You want to automate this process to eliminate data entry. To do this, use PerCon Corporation to import your microwave licenses and applications. In many cases, this only takes about a dozen keystrokes. You can then export this data to SoftWright's Fixed Facility Database and Autopath, which will run in batch mode to generate the path profiles automatically, requiring no individual path configuration.
Example 4: Public Safety Preparedness
You are in the public safety sector and planning for a catastrophic event such as a hurricane, earthquake, tornado, etc. In the event your transmitters are disabled, you need a list of other existing transmitters in the county or adjacent counties that could be used on an emergency basis. You import all data for these counties into TAP(tm), SoftWright's engineering software to automatically generate a coverage analysis of every transmitter site in these counties. You then view the results to determine which transmitters would best serve as backup systems.
Example 5: Predicting Intermodulation Interference
You are charged with the responsibility to maintain a multiple use radio site. You have worked very hard to eliminate intermod interference at your site and five new frequencies are being proposed to commence use at this site. Which one would be the best choice for minimal intermod interference? The most difficult problem here is two fold. First no one has a real list of the authorized transmitted and received frequencies actually used at this site. You must have this in order to do a reliable study. Secondly, you need intermod software that has analysis tools built into it so that the 500 pages of output can be reduced to the meaningful ten pages that must be carefully examined. Using PerCon and TAP you can obtain the most recently updated database of frequencies in use there and import them directly into TAP in order to provide an informed recommendation of preferred frequencies.
Example 6: Careful Administration of a Radio Transmitter Site with Multiple Users
You are charged with the responsibility to keep accurate records of whose equipment is on which tower, what frequencies are transmitted and received at this location, equipment maintenance scheduling, renewing of licenses, details about who to contact in an emergency situation. You can organize all this information using SoftWright Asset Manager software and populate many of the engineering details directly from the FCC frequency database if you also have access to PerCon to easily access the FCC data and send to the Asset Manager module.
How it Works
To do these types of work you will need access to the FCC web site, using acess to PerCom and relevant modules from the SoftWright Terrain Analysis Package Software. The files shared between these to software companies are completely seamless. Once you have the latest data into the TAP software you can then do virtually any type of study or analysis of radio systems without having to do extensive local research on authorized facilities or the tedious error-prone manual data entry.
To contact the companies click below:
SoftWright LLC - email - contact me
| .
|