Having a Harry Potter crazy wife and child, I know that in the stories and films they describe “non-magic” folk (to quote) as “muggles.”
On SOTA alerts I’m seeing more and more comments like :
“Can’t stay long, going with non-radio people”
“Dragging the non-radio walking team up the summit”
"Going with people who ask ‘are you finished on that radio yet???’ "
So, in the vein of Harry Potter, I wonder whether we should come up with a name for “non-radio” people, start using it, and see if it catches on throughout the amateur community!
My son goes with me at least some of the time. He is called “Chef”, “Gunga Din”, or “Mule” depending on what ever is asked of him. Thankfully, he’s cooperative, and at least he still agrees to go.
“Muggles” is what we (my wife, my kids and I and numerous other radio/SOTA people) have been calling them ever since the first Harry Potter book used the phrase.
I don’t see a need to reinvent the wheel on this one as it seems to have fallen in to fairly common use. I quite expect it to appear in the Oxford English dictionary as meaning “Anyone outside of an informed group or organisation who is unlikely to understand the jargon, technology or purpose of that group or organisation”.
Hi Steve… good to hear from ya! Seems like I haven’t worked you for a while (I’m clearly too lazy to check the log.)
I had no idea this was going on, just for some reason I felt like calling them muggles and wondered what everyone else thought (tongue in cheek of course!)