The Commission does not have a transmitter-specific database for all the services it regulates. The Commission has limited information for some services such as radio and television broadcast stations, and many larger antenna towers are required to register with the FCC if they meet certain criteria. In those cases, location is generally specified in terms of degrees, minutes, and seconds. However, this is not sufficient to distinguish between collocated transmitters. In some services, licenses are allowed to use additional transmitters or to increase power without filing with the Commission. Other services are licensed by geographic area, such that the Commission has no knowledge concerning the actual number or location of transmitters within a given geographic area.
The FCC General Menu Reports (GENMen) search engine unites most of the Commission's licensing databases under a single umbrella. Databases included are the Wireless Telecommunication Bureau's ULS, the Media Bureau's CDBS, COALS (cable data) and BLS, the International Bureau's IBFS and. Entry points into the various databases include frequency, state/county, latitude/longitude, callsign and licensee name..