A virtually conical cable model of an open-ended coaxial-line probe for converting its measured reflection coefficients into the complex permittiviy of a contacted material is presented here. Both reflection coefficients of air and pure water are calculated by employing the FDTD method, and the phase difference between the calculated and the measured reflection coefficients of pure water is used as a calibration factor of the probe. The virtually conical cable model renders the conversion of the complex permittivity of dry sand more accurate and faster than the integral equation model to the aperture admittance.