TOWER RESEARCH & DATA AGGREGATION

Tower Research
& Node Planning

Aggregate US tower data from FCC ASR, HIFLD, and open databases to strategically plan the Chicago Forest Network expansion. Geographic calculations, node-hop analysis, and co-location opportunities.

Data sourced from public FCC databases and HIFLD open datasets. All coordinates and calculations use WGS84 / NAD 83.

Tower ExplorerNode Hop AnalyzerFCC Data Sources
14
Strategic Nodes
6
Data Sources
~350 km
Network Span
~4M+
Population Covered
AI-Generated Theoretical Framework: This page presents a conceptual network planning tool built from public FCC data. Tower locations and calculations are based on publicly available government databases. The Chicago Forest Network is a theoretical framework — no operational network exists. Co-location opportunities are speculative and would require formal agreements with tower owners.

Strategic Tower Explorer

Interactive map of strategic tower locations for the Chicago Forest Network. Filter by phase and type, click nodes for details and distance calculations from Mendota.

Showing 14 of 14 towers
Illinois Tower Network - Strategic Node Map
MendotaLaSalleDeKalbOttawaSterlingRockfordNapervilleMolinePeoriaBloomingtonChicagoJolietChampaignSpringfield
Origin Tower
Relay Node
Metro Hub
Future Expansion

Mendota Solar Tower

City:Mendota, IL
County:LaSalle
Coordinates:41.5475N, 89.1178W
Elevation:751 ft ASL
Tower Height:200 ft AGL
Total AMSL:951 ft
Structure:Self-Support Lattice
Population:7,300
Phase:Phase 1

Primary junction hub

All Nodes (14)

Node Hop Analyzer

Select an origin and destination to find the optimal intermediate hop node. The analyzer scores candidates based on line-of-sight viability, path efficiency, tower height, elevation advantage, and link balance.

Uses Haversine distance, 4/3 Earth radius LOS model, and Fresnel zone calculations. All calculations performed client-side using the @chicago-forest/tower-data package algorithms.

Direct Link Analysis

Distance128.9 km (80.1 mi)
FSPL155.5 dB
LOS ViableNo (max 78 km)
Fresnel Zone29.6 m

Recommended Hop: DeKalb Relay

Score73/100
Leg 152.3 kmLOS: OK
Leg 292.9 kmLOS: Blocked
Path Efficiency89%
Elevation Advantage+206 ft

All Hop Candidates (Ranked)

#Hop NodeScoreLeg 1Leg 2TotalEfficiencyLOSElev. Adv.
1DeKalb7352 km93 km145 km89%Leg 1 OK+206 ft
2Naperville6983 km46 km129 km100%Leg 2 OK+17 ft
3Joliet6286 km54 km141 km92%Leg 2 OK-129 ft
4LaSalle5523 km135 km158 km82%Leg 1 OK-15 ft
5Ottawa5332 km117 km149 km86%Leg 1 OK-193 ft
6Sterling5055 km171 km227 km57%Leg 1 OK-31 ft
7Rockford4880 km129 km209 km62%Neither+55 ft
8Champaign45175 km203 km378 km34%Neither+68 ft
9Bloomington42119 km192 km311 km41%Neither+156 ft
10Springfield33201 km288 km490 km26%Neither-77 ft
11Peoria33103 km210 km313 km41%Neither-204 ft
12Moline32116 km243 km359 km36%Neither-93 ft

Scoring Methodology

LOS Viability (35%)

Both legs must have clear line-of-sight using 4/3 Earth radius model. 50 points per viable leg.

Path Efficiency (25%)

Ratio of direct distance to total hop distance. 100% = no extra distance.

Tower Height (15%)

Taller towers provide better relay capability. Normalized to 300 ft reference.

Elevation (10%)

Higher ground elevation improves LOS. Measured vs. average of origin/destination.

Link Balance (15%)

Equal-length legs are preferred. Ratio of shorter to longer leg distance.

Expansion Corridors

Prioritized corridors for network expansion based on population density, existing tower infrastructure, and terrain characteristics.

I-39 Corridor (Mendota → Rockford)

High·80 km

Primary backbone route north. Flat terrain, existing tower infrastructure along I-39.

Pop: 200KTower density: MediumHops: Direct or 1 relay

I-88 Corridor (DeKalb → Chicago)

High·113 km

East-West Tollway into Chicago suburbs. Dense tower infrastructure, highest population.

Pop: 1.5M+Tower density: HighHops: 2-3 relays

Chicago Metro (Naperville → Loop)

High·50 km

Dense urban tower infrastructure. Many co-location opportunities available.

Pop: 9.5MTower density: Very HighHops: Multiple options

I-80 West (Sterling → Quad Cities)

Medium·110 km

Western expansion along I-80. More rural, longer hops needed. Iowa border potential.

Pop: 200KTower density: LowHops: 1-2 relays

Illinois River (LaSalle → Peoria)

Medium·100 km

Southward expansion following Illinois River valley. Mixed terrain conditions.

Pop: 200KTower density: MediumHops: 1-2 relays

Central IL (Bloomington → Springfield)

Future·220 km

Phase 3+ long-range expansion. State capital and university cities.

Pop: 400KTower density: LowHops: 3-4 relays

FCC & Public Tower Data Sources

Aggregated data sources for US tower infrastructure research. All sources are publicly accessible or require only a free API key.

The authoritative source for all FCC-registered antenna structures. Contains coordinates (CO.dat), registration data (RA.dat), and entity/owner information (EN.dat). Structures >200ft or near airports.

Registration NumberLatitude/Longitude (NAD 83)Structure Height AGL (ft)Overall Height AMSL (ft)Elevation (ft)Structure TypeOwner/Entity NameStatus CodeFAA Study NumberMarking & Lighting
Open Data Source →Public Access

FCC ASR File Schema Reference

The FCC distributes ASR data as pipe-delimited (.dat) files. Three key files contain the data needed for tower mapping: coordinates, registration details, and owner information. Files are joined by FCC Registration Number.

CO.dat(PUBACC_CO)

Coordinates

  • •Registration Number
  • •Latitude DD (NAD 83)
  • •Longitude DD (NAD 83)
  • •Lat/Lon source
RA.dat(PUBACC_RA)

Registration / Application Data

  • •FCC Registration Number
  • •Structure Type Code
  • •Height AGL (ft)
  • •Overall Height AGL (ft)
  • •Elevation AMSL (ft)
  • •Overall Height AMSL (ft)
  • •Date Issued
  • •Date Constructed
  • •FAA Study Number
  • •Marking Code
  • •Lighting Code
EN.dat(PUBACC_EN)

Entity / Owner

  • •Entity Name
  • •Street Address
  • •City
  • •State
  • •ZIP
  • •Phone
  • •FCC Registration Number (FRN)
  • •Entity Type
Documentation: ASR Introduction (PDF) · ASR Codes & Data Elements (PDF)

Chicago / Illinois Tower Landscape

~130,000+
FCC Registered Structures (US)
~2,500+
Towers in Illinois
5
Major Tower Companies
3-5
Carriers per Tower (avg)

Major Tower Companies (Illinois)

American Tower Corp~40,000 US
Crown Castle International~40,000 US
SBA Communications~17,000 US
Vertical Bridge~11,000 US
Phoenix Tower International~5,000 US

Major Carriers

AT&T
Densest IL coverage
Verizon
Strong metro coverage
T-Mobile / Sprint
Merged network
US Cellular
Strong rural IL presence
Dish / Boost
Building 5G network

Tower Data Package

All geographic calculations and data parsing utilities are available as the @chicago-forest/tower-data package within this monorepo.

Geographic Calculations

haversineDistance(a, b)— Great-circle distance between coordinates
calculateBearing(a, b)— Initial bearing with cardinal direction
maxLineOfSight(hA, hB)— Max LOS using 4/3 Earth radius model
fresnelZoneRadius(dist, freq)— First Fresnel zone radius at midpoint
freeSpacePathLoss(dist, freq)— FSPL in dB
rainAttenuation(dist, freq)— ITU-R P.838 rain attenuation estimate
analyzeTowerLink(a, b, freq)— Full link analysis between two towers
calculateLinkBudget(...)— Complete RF link budget calculation
scoreTowerAsHop(o, c, d)— Multi-factor hop candidate scoring
intermediatePoint(a, b, f)— Point along great circle path

FCC Data Utilities

buildHIFLDQuery(filter)— ArcGIS REST API query builder for HIFLD ASR data
parseHIFLDFeature(feature)— Parse GeoJSON feature to standardized record
buildFCCSearchUrl(lat, lon, r)— FCC ASR search URL builder
STRATEGIC_TOWERS— 14 strategic IL tower locations with metadata
EXPANSION_ZONES— 6 prioritized expansion corridors
MAJOR_TOWER_COMPANIES— US tower company reference data
MAJOR_CARRIERS— US wireless carrier reference data
DATA_SOURCES— Data source URLs and format details
packages/tower-data/src/
geo.ts · fcc-asr.ts · illinois-towers.ts · index.ts
Tower data sourced from the FCC Public Access Files and HIFLD Open Data. Geographic calculations use WGS84 datum and Haversine formula. LOS analysis uses the standard 4/3 Earth radius radio propagation model. All tower co-location concepts are theoretical and would require formal agreements with registered tower owners.