My XYL liberated a number of office chairs for the pair of us here. They make a real difference to using non-rotating, non-adjustable height chairs.
I’ve changed eating so that I’m eating small amounts all the time rather than 3 square meals a day. At work, if I wanted to eat anything I either brought into the office with me or had to buy it at full price. This was effective at limiting input being too tight to spend 67p on a bag of crisps etc. Working in the kitchen it’s easy to forage so by spreading eating over a long time, it’s never too far till the next mouthful and no need to hit the biscuit barrel.
Looking through the guidance document, we do have a little more than previous lockdown guidance as local is now roughly defined under the section on travel -
You must not leave your home unless you have a reasonable excuse (for example, for work or education purposes). If you need to travel you should stay local – meaning avoiding travelling outside of your village, town or the part of a city where you live – and look to reduce the number of journeys you make overall.
With the local parks consistently full of people and few local footpaths that lend themselves to circular walks, this will certainly be a challenge. Most footpaths here are over arable land and have been over-used during the past 10 months which has reduced them to little more than slippery muddy trails. I will need to get inventive.
If the infection rate in the last 7 days is over 200 per 100,000 population, you may only travel up to 15 km away from your home.
Luckily I’m in a local council region where the number is currently at 82.3 - so, before it increases, I’m heading off to some simple SOTA summits tomorrow - all within council regions that are at 100 or less at the moment.
That is, I am heading out if the forecast snow doesn’t arrive overnight and put a kybosh on it!
73 Ed.
UPDATE 6/1/21:- Guess what - the one time that the forecast was correct - 1" of snow so far here at 650m ASL and still snowing - more at 1000-110m where I would be going - Kybosh applied - rescheduling to Friday.
Ok guys, maybe it’s time to have a regular chat on Peanut again.
(In case you have no idea what Peanut might be, read this thread: SOTA room in Peanut )
I noticed today that the SOTA room on Peanut had disappeared, so I asked David, PA7LIM why that happened.
Apparently, after 2 months of inactivity, a room is automatically removed.
David was so kind to reactivate it just a few minutes ago, so now it’s up to us … use it, or lose it.
CU on Peanut!
I might go and activate G/CE-002 again now its 2021 currently that’s the only summit I can do within the rules (it’s only 4 miles away for me so I can reasonably include it on a bike ride for exercise that starts and ends at my house)
Really? Which bit of the English lockdown rule “You can only leave your home to exercise, and not for the purpose of recreation or leisure” are you having problems with?
Seriously…
Ride to the hill sounds like exercise.
Climb the hill sounds like exercise.
Setup small radio station and spend time having QSOs DOES NOT sound like exercise.
What about, walk up hill with 2m Handheld and RH770 Antennas, as part of daily exercise, but whilst on the summit, you call CQ SOTA Callsign/M and remain moving, the plateau of High Vinnals is fairly large - About 500m between the start of the activation zone and the end of the activation zone - See map below
As I said the morals about all of this are ambiguous!! Are you allowed to sit on a park bench for a break, am I allowed to sit on a bench at the top of G/WB-012 for a break?
I suggest you try an activation when you are meant to be staying in your home. You’ll quickly find your SOTA access is disabled until you can justify how and why your activation complies with the lockdown. If you can’t convince us your activation was justified, well you might find you’re locked out as well as locked down till the restrictions are relaxed.
I’ve been a part of the SOTA community for about 4 months, and found it supportive and friendly in a variety of aspects. It is more important than ever that we recognise how valuable that can be.
The difficulty with the lockdown restrictions (as compared to other areas of lawful conduct we expect of others) are several-fold:
(i) The lockdown related law has changed frequently;
(ii) Government Advice and The Law differ (in that Government Advice is often more restrictive);
(iii) The lockdown related law does not always make sense to everyone at all times;
(iv) The lockdown strategy is not agreed-with by everybody - and the counter arguments are not just pseudo-babble (in some ways it is similar to the leave / pro-remain debate of Brexit) (though of course this is not reason to break the law).
The above points are further complicated by the fact that the impact of the rules substantially differs in magnitude between individuals. For example, an individual who has been furloughed, lives in a bedsit and for whom a specific recreational activity is key to their mental wellbeing (be it SOTA, bird spotting, train spotting - whatever) would in my eyes be forgiven for attempting to undertake such activities if carried out in a manner that did not bring them into contact with others and that was performed discretely and as part of an exercise routine.
For myself, and others, with a job I can perform at home, a variety of interests to occupy myself, and large garden it is perhaps less difficult to stick within The Law.
If someone happens to call cq from a summit near their home, with an HT, whilst on a jog or walk, lets not vilify them. If the action seems wrong then don’t answer the call, but remember it might be someone looking for an escape from a dismal existence for 5 mins and a cheery QSO might be just what they need.
Individuals who are pro-lockdown must also be respected, especially those who are effectively forced to isolate/shield. It would be disrespectful to such individuals, and the law, to mount a multi-summit SOTA expedition.
I will not be undertaking any major SOTA expeditions during the current lockdown. As mentioned above, I consider myself one of the lucky ones at present.
Andy, you are sounding like a barrack-room lawyer. So, what are you suggesting, one must not stop walking, running, cycling, {other form of exercise} whilst you are out?
Stopping at the summit to get your breathe back, or have a drink, make a phone call or eat a sandwich might not be exercise either, but I doubt that they would be considered immoral let alone breaking the law.
You also have to consider that Andy, like myself, are members of the MT, plus Andy is the AM for GM. The rules of SOTA have to be considered. While no rule in the GR refers specifically to COVID, several rules impinge on the lockdown situation. The catch-all rule is 3.7.1.14, “All SOTA operations are expected to be conducted in the spirit of the programme. Where it is determined that an Activation has not been conducted in the spirit of the Programme, the points for the Activation will be forfeited and other sanctions may be applied.” We also have to consider 3.7.3 Code of Conduct, where the MT can apply sanctions where the participant exhibits “Behaviour likely to bring SOTA into disrepute.” Is anybody going to seriously argue that flouting lockdown regulations while activating will NOT bring SOTA into disrepute? You also have to remember that the decisions of the MT are final (see rule 3.14)
Let me move the subject a little from interpretation of the lockdown rules/law in different countries and areas to a purely SOTA question, albeit Lockdown related.
Given that some of us live in regions where we were restricted from activating at the end of last year and some others in other regions are now restricted from activating, would it be possible for the Winter Bonus points ending dates to be moved out by e.g. 4-weeks to make up for the lost opportunities during lockdown.
It is possible such an action would be a nightmare to do within the database system, in which case please forget this suggestion but if it were to be practical, it may just be something to look forward to and plan for at the end of the lockdowns.
I’m not sure if you are replying to me or to the SOTA community in general.
If you and other members of the MT feel strongly that SOTA activating either breaches the law in [England][Scotland][Wales][NI][other association] or is not in the spirit of the law then you should stop debating it on this reflector and take some action, e.g. disable logging / point awarding. But you had better put a splash message on the alerts/spots pages for all those people who don’t read this reflector.
If the MT is not going to do that then you better leave it to individuals to decide if activating is in breach of the law of the land in their SOTA association.
Personally, I decided some days ago that I would not activate again until the national lockdown is over, but – without consulting a lawyer - I would not presume to tell others what to do.
