For astronomers, monitoring of the radio spectrum is an obvious necessity in order to do observations which are free of interfering signals. Recent practice has shown that the installation of dedicated RFI surveillance antennas at radio astronomy sites has virtually become a necessity. Data obtained with such antennas have carried significant weight in discussions with other radio spectrum users. Furthermore, the growing number of dedicated antennas for RFI surveillance at radio observatories has opened the possibility for the establishment of common RFI databases. Such databases can provide objective numbers showing the degradation of the effective use of protected frequencies due to interference, to be used by astronomers as well as by their partners in frequency protection. As it is all too easy to drown in such a sea of data, discussions between astronomers themselves and with their partners are clearly necessary to define the form, implementation and use of such databases.