D-Star frequencies in the Netherlands.

Abraham van den Berg, PB0AOK - VERON's VHF manager, clarified the D-Star issue in the Netherlands. VERON is the Dutch IARU society.

It is untrue that the Dutch administration is thinking about D-Star repeaters operating in the 437-438 MHz band.

Presently, the amateur service in the Netherlands and neighbouring countries suffers from harmful interference, caused by what can be seen as a regrettable implementation of the Radiolocation service in the 438-440 MHz band.

For that reason, usage of D-Star repeaters with output frequencies in the upper 2 MHz part of the Region 1 70cm band, is hampered.

To solve this problem, recently the Dutch D-Star community came up with a proposal to plan the output frequencies of D-Star repeaters just below 438MHz and has asked VERON to support this proposal.

VERON has decided not to do so, due to incompatibility between the amateur service and amateur-satellite service. Moreover, the proposal deviates significantly from the IARU-R1 band plan.

In the meantime VERON has made an alternative proposition to amend the Dutch national frequency plan in such a way, that it fully complies with article 5 RR, the European Common Allocation table, as well as the IARU-R1 band plan.

Thank you Bram, for this clarification.

Gaston Bertels - ON4WF IARU Region 1 ARSPEX WG chairman