Lets go further into the past:
Do you know the muffin man,
the muffin man, the muffin man,
do you know the muffin man,
who lives on Drury Lane?
Oh, yes I know the muffin man…etc
Sung to the accompanyment of a skipping rope in my childhood back in the Bronze Age! 
It makes it difficult to take muffins seriously - not to mention Muffin the Mule and later sniggered jokes…
Gerald, your origin story reminds me of my own in this way.
Since boyhood I was fascinated by radiowave propagation. I had a variety of shortwave receivers and scanners but, coming from an arts background, taking the test to get my license always seemed to be beyond my natural aptitudes and inclinations.
Then my wife single-handedly rescued our friend’s horse in the Old Topanga Fire of 1993. She took rescue training with Los Angeles County and became a member of their Equine Response Team. They wanted her to get her amateur radio license and so she took the test twice and failed.
At this point she asked me for help. We went down to Ham Radio Outlet to get some study materials and a young woman there told us about QRZ.com and the online practice tests.
I went home and for laughs took the Technican test online cold. To my utter amazement I passed easily!
I was reminded of the old parable of the farmer who ploughed around the boulder in the center of his field because it seemed too hard to remove, only to discover at the end of his life that it was just modest rock sitting on the surface that was removed with no trouble.
So we became KG6MZR and KG6MZS in 2002 and and anytime she thinks my enthusiasm for the hobby has gone off the rails she says: “I only have myself to blame!”
73 Eric KG6MZS
That’s quite a cool origin story Marat – and a cool picture. I took the liberty of cleaning it up a bit:
Kids today probably think that quote originated in the movie Shrek.
In another note: I wouldn’t feel a poll to be scientific without the Muffins option.
The movie does predate SOTA.
… good question!
First I thought it’s easy to say but then I started digging in the past.
My family comes from a mountain range. I was (sort of) hiking before I could properly remember. But that wasn’t a decision of my own back then (and definitely not climbing).
I wanted to go climbing at the age of about 15 which is well before I got my ham radio ticket. But I got interested in SWL, BC DX and electronics some years before. So, it’s really hard to tell which came first. It seems both preferences exist for a long time.
Anyway, SOTA seems to be the ideal combination for me 
73, Roman
Great story! What an interesting way into Amateur Radio.
Equine rescue sounds terrifying to me! Dealing with massive horses who themselves are frightened.
In that 1993 fire I went up to my friend’s house on a welfare check. The husband was away fighting the fire at his work while his wife was at their home and in the process of evacuating. I went up the the barn and tried to halter their two horses. The older one was easy but the young green colt wouldn’t let me even get near him. I summoned my wife who has a way with horses. Not only was she able to get a halter on the green horse but she flagged down a guy with a horse trailer - a total rando stranger - and trailer loaded both animals. The young horse had never even been in a trailer!
Their barn burned down hours later.
I didn’t know about the Drury Lane Dicer until today. I guess like “Ring Around The Rosy,” “Do You Know The Muffin Man” is a nursery rhyme with some pretty dark origins. Learn something new every day.
A nice title here in this forum. At the beginning I thought ok, it’s just a vote and that’s it. I was amazed that so many interesting reports came out of it. Many thanks for the interesting reading material
For me it started with hiking in the mountains. That came in my youth, even if I didn’t really like it at the time. Then came CB radio at some point. Later, hiking again and then much later amateur radio. And the result ended in SOTA 
73 Marcel DM3FAM
Ditto - from another non-mountaineer.
The big dilemma after a big trip, those much dreamed of essentials:
But in what order? Where do I start?
We had been cycle tourists for about a decade, and my wife got more into hiking (or hillwalking to be more precise). This became concurrent with my getting licensed and watching the youtubes and becoming SOTA-curious.
Now the issue for Lauren is that I am rarely interested in a walk if there is no SOTA. I am just over 400 points. I am trying to plan tomorrow. I placed 5th in the local association 10m challenge for 2024, activating in 5 countries, I think I also did 5 first activations.
Anyway, that is how it goes.
…get the lot! 
Geoff vk3sq
I went for
“I was into radio before I got into mountaineering.” but I would not class myself as a mountaineer - more of a person who walks up hills to play radio/sota
English muffins
Radio/electronics interest for me started at about 12 years old and I was licensed as G3WGV at 16. We lived in Bedford, which is as flat as a pancake so my love for the mountains developed a few years later when I was able to drive to them. My taste for muffins probably predates both.
I discovered a few things which became passions when I was 13 and joined the army cadets; Hiking, climbing, canoeing, shooting and caving were my things. I was a social housing kid who suddenly had his eyes open to all that the world might hold for me.
I’ve always been a bit nerdy and, having met some folks from Southampton radio club at a show when I was 14, I became a SWL (with a WW2 Marconi CR100) and took my exam in 1977, aged 16. I didn’t take my CW test and upgrade my licence until 1998. Amatuer radio led to my first professonal career and It’s still inspring and stimulating me every day.
I’d read a bit about SOTA and chased a handful around 2017 but, during a trip to the Lake District in September 2023 for a friend’s wedding, something possessed me to take an FT270 up Skiddaw and I was immediately hooked. With luck, tomorrow’s planned activation will see me go past 600 activator points.
Owards and upwards
Hiking at age 5 with dad…year was 1957
Ham License at age 13…
My first “activation” was on a mountain in Arizona for Field day (and YES, that peak is now a SOTA summit).
Pete
WA7JTM
Better that than yelling “TENSION!” into oblivion.
I grew up in northern Germany in a family where nobody played sports… and the mountains were quite far away!
But what always fascinated me was the old tube radio with the “magic eye” that showed whether the station was tuned in correctly… and it had several shortwave bands and you could hear stations from all over the world… that infected me. The virus is still active today.
When I moved to the southwest corner of Germany in 1984, I had already had my VHF license for a few years… A few years later, after the Morse test, I also got my shortwave license.
In the meantime, I had discovered the mountains for myself… but I never thought about a combination… That changed with SOTA!
73 Armin
