Generate APRS-Is Passcode using VB.Net

Aprs-Is_Passcode.cs

using System;

private static long GenPc(string pc)
{
		//strip station designators. ex: "-5"  Only the real call sign is used
		int stophere = pc.IndexOf("-");
		if (stophere > 0)
		{
			pc = pc.Split('-')[0];
		}

		//'the Hash must be 29666 (non-negotiable)
		long hash = 29666;

		for (var j = 1; j <= pc.Length; j++)
		{
			if (Convert.ToBoolean((j % 2)))
			{
				hash = hash ^ (Microsoft.VisualBasic.Strings.Asc(pc.ToUpper().Substring(j - 1, 1)) << 8);
			}
			else
			{
				hash = hash ^ Microsoft.VisualBasic.Strings.Asc(pc.ToUpper().Substring(j - 1, 1));
			}
		}

		//'mask the high bit so that the result is always positive
		return hash & 65535;
	}

Aprs-Is_Passcode.vb

 Private Function GenPC(pc As String) As Long
            Dim j = 1
            //strip station designators. ex: "-5" Only the real call sign is used
            Dim stophere = InStr(pc, "-") - 1
            If stophere > 0 Then
                pc = pc.Split("-"c)(0)
            End If

            //the Hash must be 29666 (non-negotiable)
            Dim hash As Long = 29666
            For j = 1 To pc.Length
                If CBool((j Mod 2)) Then
                    hash = hash Xor (Asc(Mid(pc, j, 1)) << 8)
                Else
                    hash = hash Xor Asc(Mid(pc, j, 1))
                End If
            Next

            //mask the high bit so that the result is always positive
            GenPC = hash And 65535
        End Function

Aprs-Is_Passcode2.vb

 Private Shared Function GenPc(pc As String) As Long
        'strip station designators. ex: "-5"  Only the real call sign is used
        Dim stophere As Integer = InStr(pc, "-") - 1
        If stophere > 0 Then
            pc = pc.Split("-"c)(0)
        End If

        ''the Hash must be 29666 (non-negotiable)
        Dim hash As Long = 29666

        For j = 1 To pc.Length
            If CBool(j Mod 2) Then
                hash = hash Xor (Asc(Mid(pc.ToUpper(), j, 1)) << 8)
            Else
                hash = hash Xor Asc(Mid(pc.ToUpper(), j, 1))
            End If
        Next

        ''mask the high bit so that the result is always positive
        GenPc = hash And 65535
    End Function

Cleaned up the code by removing an unneeded parenthesis and converting the callsign to uppercase within the function.

Added C# version of function.