COVID-19 Update 23.12.2020

The Coronavirus rules and guidance continue to change quickly and vary widely across the country. We are continuing to follow the approach of simply requiring stations to strictly follow their local COVID restrictions and advisories.  

The introduction of the new Tier 4 restrictions in England with their scale, and the likelihood that they will be in place for quite some time creates a particular challenge. The legislation allows for people in Tier 4 to leave and to travel a short distance home for “open air recreation”. At this time of year - we don’t believe that the vast majority of portable contesting meets this criteria. So, for clarity, at this time we will not accept portable entries from stations living or operating in English Tier 4 locations. We will keep this position under regular review. 

The individual rules are so complex and changing so frequently that we can’t list every situation here in detail, but we believe the principle is clear. Some examples of expected behaviour would be
 
·        If you are under essential travel only’ conditions – don’t travel to take part in a contest
 
·       If you are in an area with advisories or rules against travel beyond its boundaries – don’t travel outside of the specified area to take part in a contest
 
·       Don’t enter an area under a travel advisory or rules to take part in a contest
 
Note that from the 1^st January, in-line with our approach of simply following Government rules and guidance, we’re removing the constraint that all entries have to be single operator. We will simply require that all entrants must fully comply with all COVID-19 local restrictions and advice including but not limited to social distancing, meeting people outside of their household/bubble and travelling, that apply to the location where they are operating and at the time of the event. Any enclosed operating space (e.g. car, tent) will be considered to be an indoor location. Sadly – it feels like it might be a little while until indoor social mixing is allowed in many parts of the UK which would allow groups to take advantage of this change.

So – for clarity -
 
We are interpreting these rules as of 22th December such that we will accept portable contesting entries from
 
·       England within Tier 1 and Tier 2 regions,
 
·       England - within Tier 3 regions - provided you do not leave your own Tier 3 region
 
·       Scotland within Level 0, 1 and 2
 
·       Scotland within Level 3 - provided that you do not travel outside of your own area

Northern Ireland, Wales, Tier 4 areas in England and Level 4 areas in Scotland all have ‘essential travel only’ restrictions in place which means that you should not travel for contesting.
 
The rules in individual areas will change frequently and we don’t plan to give an update following every small change – we hope the principle of following the government guidance should be clear

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I’d also just like to take this opportunity to say thank you for entering the contests during this rather unusual 2020. I hope the contesting has provided a useful diversion – and I look forward to seeing you all back in 2021. Have a lovely holiday season.

73,

Andy, G4PIQ

Chair RSGB VHF Contest Committee