Talk:Tag:man made=mast
mapping services
There are already some services collecting Cell-Id data - some do have osm-layers. For example:
--katpatuka (talk) 13:56, 7 July 2015 (UTC)
No matter how big, it still won't show up on the map
No matter how big, it still won't show up on the map.
That's because such towers aren't apparently important to the stylesheet makers. Jidanni (talk) 07:53, 1 April 2016 (UTC)
- It depends on the map. It appears on any that I produce :)
--SomeoneElse (talk) 12:02, 4 April 2016 (UTC)
- So what am I doing wrong here? Thanks Jidanni (talk) 04:13, 5 April 2016 (UTC)
- Well that's a man_made=communications_tower, rather than a man_made=mast. It doesn't render on OSM's "standard" style, but it looks like no-one has actually asked for it to be rendered: https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=communications_tower&type=Issues . I'm not convinced by the distinctions on http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:man%20made=communications%20tower?uselang=en-GB though - I'm not convinced that actual real mappers mapping real things map them as the creator of that page does.
- What my "it depends on the map" comment was trying to say was "there is more than just the standard map" - most people who encounter OSM data see some other rendering of it (such as a Mapbox one in a third-party product). Personally, when I create web maps for my own use, I render all "tower like things" as towers via a lua script. --SomeoneElse (talk) 20:09, 5 April 2016 (UTC)
Mast supports
I had a problem, at Chillerton Down on the Isle of Wight, mapping the large concrete blocks that hold the supporting stays for the high lattice tower. I used area=yes; barrier=block; surface=concrete but I think that is a bit of a fudge. Couldn't find any other examples of stayed towers. Now, with bridges, there are a collection of supports, piers, etc that you can choose from - so any ideas for tower supports, please? I note we have "landmark=large rock" but I can find nothing man-made to use for functional/redundant blocks of concrete that it is not unusual to find on a walk. --Iwhs (talk) 10:43, 28 January 2019 (UTC)
Distinction between masts and towers
The page suggests that one can use tower:construction=lattice, and tower:construction=guyed_lattice. While I can imagine calling a structure a "mast" if it is a thin lattice structure, supported by guy wires, I don't see how a freestanding lattice structure could be a mast. Isn't that a man_made=tower? --Jeisenbe (talk) 02:11, 10 November 2019 (UTC)
Misleading usage for cell towers
This page is self-contradictory. "A man_made=mast is usually a small, narrow mast of only a few meters height", but the image obviously depicts a structure at least 20m tall. Moreover, the general term "mast" recognized by the industry here in the US, is sometimes used by guyed tall structures (they are still named as tower just like UK considering tower and mast the same). All other structures should use tower instead, In US when saying cell tower, it could be the one in the image; when saying radio mast, it is often a lattice tower with guy wire support like these. -- CBRS (talk) 21:38, 17 January 2021 (UTC)
- @CBRS: I wonder if the "few meters [in] height" specification was something lost in translation. Most English speakers would understand "a few meters" to mean 3 meters or so, which would literally disqualify everything beyond a small streetlamp. The edit by Derstefan that introduced this phrase also included two examples, both of which seem to be 20 meters or taller. My best understanding of the distinction is rather that man_made=tower is enclosed whereas man_made=mast is exposed. – Minh Nguyễn 💬 07:38, 24 May 2022 (UTC)
Fake tree?
How does one tag the fact that a cell phone mast has been camouflaged as an ugly tree? Is the concealed still valid? It's not documented. - T99 (talk) 06:42, 25 September 2021 (UTC)
- Check Key:mimics -- CBRS (talk) 19:11, 26 September 2021 (UTC)
Why NOT mast:type ?
Why should mast be mixed with tower:type ?
Rtfm (talk) 15:54, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
- From my understanding, this would just be a redundant tag that data consumers would have to additionally figure out how to parse, and another redundant tag we'd have to maintain duplicate documentation for. tower:type still gets
the point across effectively, and at this point is de-facto. --SherbetS (talk) 21:48, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
Areas
I think this article should be updated to allow for masts as areas. I've been micromapping some larger freestanding communications towers (man_made=mast tower:type=communication) as areas, in part so that we can distinguish them from the antennae mounted atop them (man_made=antenna). Normally, for a lattice tower, the area is simply a triangle with a vertex at each anchor, but fancier designs exist too. It isn't possible to faithfully represent this kind of feature as a point alone, because the shape and orientation isn't necessarily predictable. Some towers straddle roads and buildings. Guyed towers can also be connected to man_made=guy_wire ways that end in man_made=guy_wire_anchor nodes. – Minh Nguyễn 💬 18:58, 3 July 2023 (UTC)
- I see the use potential from this to be pretty limited beyond advanced 3D rendering, and I've only found it annoying to clean up these types of objects. It's hard enough for unfamiliar users to understand the tagging scheme as it is, and I normally don't recommend using antenna to include metadata, since it still might be difficult for a data consumer to interpret the antenna as being associated with the parent mast. I only map it like this whenever I am mapping several service providers to the same object. --SherbetS (talk) 21:56, 3 July 2023 (UTC)
- @SherbetS: Agreed, I normally only bother micromapping shared masts as areas. The only other reason I've ever micromapped a mast has been because it has a Wikidata item and/or Wikipedia article separate from the item or article about the broadcast station. In any case, adding |onArea = yes to the infobox wouldn't require a mast to always be mapped as an area. – Minh Nguyễn 💬 22:16, 3 July 2023 (UTC)