[Talk-us] FCC Antenna Structure Import

[Mike Thompson]

Jeff,

One more thing.  You may want to be careful about eliminating
duplicates.  For example, if you have a microwave tower that
communicates with two other sites, it will be in the FCC data twice at
the same location.  To me that is not a "duplicate" as each record
will contain different information about the remote site it
communicates with.

Mike

On Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 11:14 AM, Mike Thompson <miketho16 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Jeff,
>
> I have worked with this data before (not for OSM).  The data is in the
> public domain.  Your approach sounds sensible to me.  Many of the
> locations are grossly wrong.  So it is important to do manual cleanup.
>  By the way, license holders are liable for a fine if the coordinates
> in this database are wrong.  The FCC might be very interested in OSMs
> feedback!
>
> Mike
>
> On Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 10:47 AM, Jeffrey Ollie <jeff at ocjtech.us> wrote:
>> The FCC maintains a database of antenna structures which includes an
>> approximate geographic location.  Since this data maintained by the US
>> Government the data should be public domain.  The main entry page for
>> the database is here: <http://wireless.fcc.gov/antenna/>
>>
>> I'd like to do some semi-automatic imports of this data in my
>> locality. I don't think I'll do mass automated imports for large areas
>> because many antennas have already been mapped and the coordinates
>> provided in the FCC database are only approximate.  What I plan on
>> doing is generating a OSM file, loading it into JOSM, and then
>> manually de-duplicate and adjust the coordinates based upon aerial
>> imagery.
>>
>> Here's what a sample looks like (at least in the current iteration of
>> the code).  I'm still looking over the data to see if there are any
>> other useful fields that can be pulled out of the FCC database.
>>
>>  <node lat="41.732833" visible="true" version="1" lon="-93.582639" id="-5">
>>    <tag k="man_made" v="tower"/>
>>    <tag k="access" v="private"/>
>>    <tag k="tower:type" v="communication"/>
>>    <tag k="ele" v="278.9"/>
>>    <tag k="height" v="37.8"/>
>>    <tag k="fcc:registration_number" v="1246498"/>
>>    <tag k="fcc:unique_system_identifier" v="2645662"/>
>>    <tag k="operator" v="TowerCo Assets LLC"/>
>>    <tag k="website"
>> v="http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/AsrSearch/asrRegistration.jsp?regKey=2645662"/>
>>    <tag k="source" v="Federal Communications Commission Antenna
>> Structure Registration Database"/>
>>    <tag k="addr:housenumber" v="210"/>
>>    <tag k="addr:street" v="Northeast Delaware Avenue"/>
>>    <tag k="addr:city" v="Ankeny"/>
>>    <tag k="addr:state" v="IA"/>
>>    <tag k="addr:postcode" v="50021"/>
>>    <tag k="addr:country" v="US"/>
>>  </node>
>>
>> The "fcc:registration_number" should be posted on a sign near the
>> tower, which should make it easier to match up ground observations
>> with what is in the database.  The "fcc:unique_system_identifier" is a
>> key into the FCC's database.  My script uses the services of
>> <http://geocoder.us/> to parse the addresses in the database.  If
>> geocoder.us can't parse the address I just stick the unparsed address
>> in a "addr:full" tag.
>>
>> I'd love to know if I'm being stupid or if there are any improvements
>> people have.  Once the script seems fairly stable I'll upload it
>> somewhere and post the location.
>>
>> --
>> Jeff Ollie
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Talk-us mailing list
>> Talk-us at openstreetmap.org
>> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
>>
>