[OSM-talk] Tagging HAM radio repeaters.

[Mike Collinson]

At 06:48 AM 30/03/2008, Kyle Gordon wrote:
>Jon Stockill wrote:
>> simon at mungewell.org wrote:
>>
>>   
>>> Also any objection to a closed wey showing coverage limit, and how should
>>> this be tagged? (would probably need a wey per transmitter frequency).
>>>     
>>
>> Coverage would depend a great deal on the equipment used to access the 
>> repeater though.
>>
>> Jon
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> talk mailing list
>> talk at openstreetmap.org
>> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/talk
>>
>>   
>Maybe not a closed way defining coverage, but on the node putting in 
>power output per band would be useful. Freqs could be listed by band as 
>well, such as 70cm, 2m, etc A wiki style link to propogation maps would 
>be useful too. A repeater site may also contain different repeaters 
>operated by different folks (with different callsigns)
>
>Kyle

Unless the original intent is to actually go out and physically map the real coverage extent, that sounds promising.  With information about antenna config, ERP etc tagged on the repeater node, it should be possible to generate theoretical coverage maps based on OSM.  Combining terrain data too might make an interesting project.

At the current state of play, creating wide-ranging closed ways to show coverage limit would be a bit like mapping flight paths, interesting to some folks but confusing to others if it passes through their back garden.  I predict that before not too long we'll have the ability to map into, and make maps from, a core OSM database (i.e. what we have now) and add-on databases, such as coast lines.  I suggest holding off until then. Just my view!

Mike