If I’m looking to amuse myself by appearing to totally miss their attempt at humor, I respond seriously, “No. Why do you ask?”
But the most common question I’m asked is, “What are you measuring?”
I’ve been able to convince my youngest son to come along on only 2 trips – both when he was about 12. My favorite reply to all queries was, “Walker! Tour guide!” and he’d give his little talk about ham radio and awards programs and the farthest place I’ve ever reached, etc., while I continued my QSOs.
I hunt for the comments about “…I have to ask…” to which I reply “…yea I would worry about you if you didn’t.” 
I have often replied, "I am the guy in the commercial, "can you hear me now ? " " . Followed with - “I am testing cell phone coverage”. My fav. was someone was convinced I was tracking wildlife. Not to disappoint I acknowledged his inquiry with, “yes, Cougar”.
If you find a flat-earther on a mountaintop, hook them and take a photo.
Boots to hike:$250
Fishing pole: $100
Photo of a Flat Earther on a mountaintop: priceless!!!
I’ve been asked that many times.
The other day I responded “yes I am…unfortunately all I seem to be able to hear is Irish, Scots & Americans”. Their reaction was priceless!
I then went on to briefly explain about the SOTA program & amateur radio.
My only fear with my fishing rod is to meet a fishing ranger … I am not sure that my ham license is valid for fishing … fishes : =)
Matt
I think that must be the winner!
Quoting Nietzsche in the original would certainly bring the conversation to an end!
During my last SOTA and IOTA activations I always met people who were obviously interested. Some have talked to me - partly during a CW QSO, others have then gone on.
Therefore I have created a small poster for my next activities, which I will fix well visible near me. The text:
This is amateur radio!
I quite like the idea of using the same title for a poster in UK…This is Amateur Funk!
And M1EYP right besides the poster playing some funky bass lines.
That or it’s also a through - hiking term:
Hiker funk: This term refers to that smell that attaches itself to the hiker and all the hiker’s belongings.
Source: Walking North: Trail Legs, Family, and Hiker Funk - The Trek
But now back on topic 
Three “Are you fishing”? questions this morning on Allermuir Hill GM/SS-171. My reply with straight face:“Brown Trout”… then my smile cracked and I explained at great length what SOTA was and about amateur radio in general.
How many “Are you fishings” I will get on Arthur’s Seat GM/SS-272 later this afternoon is anyones guess. If I get one or more I will report back here… I will say Brown Trout again I think…
73 Phil
Best comeback for “Are you fishing?“
This reminds me of my encounter with Police (Gendarmerie) on Ménez Bré FL/NO-079 back in July.
It’s a drive-up summit. As we arrived at the top, there were a couple of cars parked, including a police car! We went for a 10 minutes walk around the summit, checked out the church etc. We could see the two police officers walking around; bit of a strange sight in the middle of nowhere really… It was keen to start the activation as the weather was a bit unstable, but wasn’t too keen to do this in front of them as I knew they would come asking questions! As I was in a hurry, and wasn’t doing anyway illegal anyway, I decided to go ahead…
So I setup my mast; I had not yet turned on my radio that, of course, they started to walk towards me 
I made a few steps towards them and they asked “Ça mord?”, which is really the equivalent for “are you catching anything”? They immediately said they were joking and guessed what I was doing (probably not their very first encounter with radio amateurs). Their second question was whether I was able to listen to Police transmissions We had a short and pleasant chat as I explained a bit more about SOTA. I finally found why they were here: they knew an illegal rave party was going to take place in the area and were checking possible sites!
This one of my favorite threads on the reflector. 
It is my nature to give smart ass answers similar to many given above. On the other hand, my lead sherpa, Mrs. K7EEX, trained in education and having worked as a state park ranger, is a master of explaining SOTA to passers-by. More than once while I’ve been activating, I’ve looked over to a crowd of people standing around her as she explains how I can talk to people around the globe from the mountain tops.
It is surprising to me how many people know what SOTA is here in Colorado.
On Arthur’s Seat GM/SS-272 yesterday:
“Are you surveying”.
“Yes, I am surveying the short wave bands to see what I can hear”
“Aw… Great, awesome!”
"Is that a Mezuza?" (Israeli man)
“What’s a Mezuza, and how do you spell that?”
Friendly man spells it and explains it is a ring or cordon that can be put around a jewish neighbourhood…
Wikipedia says differently, so no idea what that was all about!
So that was Arthur’s Seat yesterday, 28 QSOs on 60m and 40m in difficult crowded conditions, people everywhere, and close to my antenna too as they tried to find a route down away from the official path. I still haven’t chased it myself. No chance of operating from the summit itself, crowded, with two members of a family continuously coughing. I settled for the highest gorse bush to support the 5m pole and dipole on the flank of the hill about 15m vertical height down from the highest point. I won’t be returning. This morning we will go to Scald Law GM/SS-125 which should be a lot quieter people wise and maybe no one will ask questions…
73 Phil
Me too [especially to my wife]. Most questioners are innocently curious so I don’t want to embarrass them and have them regret asking me by my being ‘cute’. Also, I’ve found frequently that strangers don’t see my jokey answer as funny [Actually, not just strangers, my family too]. So, I play it safe now and say something brief about amateur radio from hilltops. Most folk are genuinely interested (if I keep it short).
With permission from Roman - DL3TU, I used his idea to make a page and QR code of my own.
I did a few adaptations in the text that suited me better.
This is what I printed, I will laminate it and it goes into my backpack for my EA5 trip at the end of september. It leads to an English and a Spanish page on my blog (I hope).
I won’t post the links to my blog here … you have to scan the QR codes of course ! 
Have comments, see any typos or language errors ? Let me know !
73,
Luc ON7DQ
I read the material at the link from the QR code and I think you’ve done an excellent job describing SOTA and of course, why there is a fishing pole on a mountain. Well done, Luc.
73 Andrew vk1da/2uh
