It Grutte Ear

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Close up view
It Grutte Ear, view from the south. In between the NSO building

It Grutte Ear ("The Big Ear"), also Grutte Earen , formerly It Greate Ear and officially called Satellietgrondstation 12 , is the Frisian nickname for a Dutch ground station for satellite communications .

The ground station is located on meadows near the eastern border of West Friesland, far from any settlements. In the southwest of the station lies the Frisian village Burum , east of the peasantry De Keegen and west is a prayer house of the Russian Orthodox Church of Kollumerpomp . The station was built in 1973 by the telecommunications company PTT and is still the only Dutch ground station (see fixed earth station ) for international connections via communications satellites. Today it belongs to the successor KPN and is managed by Inmarsat (formerly Stratos Global Corporation , formerly Xantic BV ).

Inmarsat

The ground station is the gateway to collecting European and intercontinental communications from the Netherlands and neighboring countries, which is bundled here via the telephone network and radio link and transmitted to satellites so that the signals reach their final destination via similar ground stations in other parts of the world.

Intelligence listening station

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 , the Dutch government decided to set up the National Signals Intelligence Organization (NSO ) to coordinate the surveillance of communications between its secret services ( AIVD and MIVD ). This has been accompanied by an increase in the demand for satellite capacity. The existing ground station of the intelligence service in Zoutkamp from the 1970s could not be expanded due to local residents' protests. The Ministry of the Interior then closed the system and relocated the satellite dishes to a traditional similar location on the eastern shore of the Lauwersmeer . In 2005, the NSO contacted the operator of the It Grutte Ear ground station to use two existing large bowls and to build 13 new receiving systems. The area of ​​the NSO was established in the southern part of Grutte Ear. The systems are designed to receive and evaluate all satellite radio traffic in the context of the fight against terrorism . One of the two large bowls was later demolished. The continued existence of this listening station is uncertain due to the frequency occupancy it uses at the expense of the planned 5G network. There should be a move abroad. (As of December 2018)

Web links

  • It Greate Ear in Burum by Jan Abrahamse, from the North Dutch nature magazine Noorderbreedte from November 30, 2006
Commons : It Grutte Ear  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kabinet: verplaatsing grondstation Burum noodzaak voor optimal 5G networks, notification from the Dutch government (Rijksoverheid) of December 24, 2018

Coordinates: 53 ° 17 ′ 5 "  N , 6 ° 12 ′ 53"  E