The United Kingdom's telecommunication regulator, OFCOM, has helped untangle a situation that developed last year regarding amateur radio operation in British territories in and around Antarctica. Those stations had previously received VP8 call signs, along with stations in the Falkland Islands. Under a new communications act for the Falklands, all VP8 licenses were revoked last year, and the administration there issued new licenses good only for use in the Falklands. This left hams operating in South Georgia, the South Sandwich Islands and the British Antarctic Territory without legal status or call signs.
The Southgate Amateur Radio Club's news service now reports that OFCOM has agreed to reissue licenses directly to those operators, still using VP8 prefixes, unless and until the administrations of these smaller overseas territories receive authority to issue licenses on their own. For details on this somewhat confusing situation, see <https://tinyurl.com/1t3uuc5m>.
