There are a few communication towers near me and I mapped them but I don’t have any information about them. Is there a way to find out? I don’t think that information is public.
Actually it may be public. Check around on the FCC website. That date is public domain. I’m not sure if anyone as attempted a mass import as many towers are mapper.
As an avid “ear” (ham and shortwave radio aficionado, scanner listener, radio-in-general hobbyist…), I agree with @ElliottPlack that “much” of this is public domain data attainable by the FCC. However, I have often found it challenging to navigate the many twists and turns of the web-accessible FCC databases, as the technology (such as how they build their websites and the query software they use) changes frequently or, as I often find it, is clunky or out-of-date. With practice, you can “get the hang of it” and make these data useful to you with smarter queries, but you might not find it especially user-friendly as a first-time user.
Try a query based on a small geographic area and examine the results. You might then go “deeper” into each of the results, or “wider” in your geography, or both. Good luck, have fun!
You got that right. I tried navigating some sites and I was completely lost.
Hey!
I’ve used this dataset that makes the FCC data much easier to download and read from.
I’ve been working on getting it ready for mass import for some time, but other projects are currently the focus.
by the way, what tags are you using to describe the objects you’re mapping?
–SherbetS
I just used Communication Tower as a node. I can’t find any information on it.
This is the incorrect tag for those objects.
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to fight the increasing incorrect use of the tag.
If you read the wiki, it’s clear that this tag isn’t applicable to any objects in North America.
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:man_made%3Dcommunications_tower
The correct tag is
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:man_made%3Dmast
in combination with tower:type=communication
–SherbetS
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James, thanks for your links, though I would find it helpful if you additionally posted a blurb here with a link to your (under development for months) wiki that is prepping these data for “mass import.” That is a mighty big project (and I’ve watched as you’ve rather wisely, imo, whittled it down). And I do think the mast / comm tower data therein are a good fit for OSM. Thanks in advance for your wiki import link.
Sure.
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/HIFLD
I’ve been planning on working with this data for a good while like you mentioned, but it is quite the load just to document, plus the fact that I’m already waist deep in the Florida Landuse Import makes it pretty hard for me to pin down a date even remotely soon where I’d be able to start working on the HIFLD in earnest.
–SherbetS
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There are no real deadlines in OSM, we are all volunteers. I hope I didn’t seem like I was rushing you, I wasn’t. Of course HIFLD will take time, it has, it will, it is a great big chunk of data and requires quite a bit of care if we’re going to do it right. Your progress is encouraging and has no timetable requirement.
Like crowdsourcing, one thing at a time, over time, and we all enjoy a better map. Even at the individual level. No hurry.