This is a real story. Last year I placed 6M3 antenna for 50 MHz in backyard of rented house, and neighbor spotted it from the second floor of his house across the fence. He complained to my landlord that I am a CIA agent and that I am listen his conversations 
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That’s just to funny. Seems it would be a lot easier to just ask you what you were doing.
73, fred
The most common questions [jokes?] I get nowadays from walkers are:
[Looking at the pole] “Are you fishing for something?” [My stock answer; “Yes, flying fish”], and
“Are you monitoring the low-flying jets?” [We get a lot in the G/LD dales]
On a G/NP summit last year a bloke told me that his group of four were debating what I was doing, spying or maybe measuring the weather. I said, they were right the first time but my cover story was pretending to be a radio amateur sending and receiving Morse messages with other hill-top hams.
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Generally I love when non-hams stop to ask what I’m doing, as it usually leads to a nice chat during which I can promote the hobby. Sometimes, however, the timing isn’t good – like when trying to complete a tough S2S QSO, as happened to N4DCW once when in QSO with me. Mike later said that we need a Q signal to indicate when “the peasants are revolting,” i.e., we are distracted by the questions. We came up with QPR.
I’ve had only one bad encounter, which occurred last year while activating W9/IN-001. A young man drove up and very aggressively asked what I was doing. When I explained it was ham radio, he replied no it wasn’t, but that he “knew what I was doing” and he was going to call the local sheriff. As I quickly packed up my station, he took video of my setup and car; I’m guessing when he saw my ham plates, that prompted him to say “You’re with the feds!” God only knows what was going on in his head, but at least I had enough QSOs to qualify the activation ;-). He followed me out to the main highway. My recommendation for anyone activating this summit in the future is to not locate where I was (in front of an abandoned farm – a drug drop?), and perhaps consider pedestrian mobile. The AZ is fairly large.
73 Paula k9ir
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The hikers here are usually curious and friendly, and they have heard of amateur radio, a typical conversation from EI/IE-008 last year
- what the @#?! is this for?
- it’s an antenna for amateur radio, I’m trying to make some contacts over short waves
- oh my great uncle was into that, he was one of the first radio amateurs in Ireland
- that’s cool, what was his call sign?
- I don’t remember but it’s written on his headstone!
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Paula,
Wow, that’s pretty scary. Well so far I haven’t had anything like that happen but I was asked once again about being a spy. It happened just the other day. Holiday hikers. W1/HA-049
Oh well I had a lot of fun and ran into a gang from the MIT outing club.
Probably best not engage with people that are that paranoid. Perhaps even walk away or get away from the parking lot a little.
Be safe YL,
73 Fred
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My neighbours kids thought I was a spy until they saw me on the BBC Countryfile TV show.
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So now you are an undercover spy…Shhhhh…
When the kid next door saw me erect a Siro vertical antenna he asked, was I going to talk to Aliens.
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You’ve nailed it. I’m going to use that from now on… 
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“Is there an event on?” is the most common question I’ve had when I’ve got the big antenna up.
The marshalls on mountain events I’ve seen only ever have handheld radios.
Mucking around on the radio talking to random people all over Europe is one of my stock answers, and if they’re still interested I’ll explain some more.
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I’ve been planning to print a brochure for a long time but haven’t done it yet. But usually I take with me few QSL cards to give to people I get into conversation with, so they can google me and perhaps they will keep it as a bookmark.
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I met a physics teacher on a recent activation. We had a great chat, but it was rapidly approaching the limits of my ability to explain propagation!
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Easy, just give Einstein’s explanation
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I’m a bit bothered by the lack of interaction on the mountains these days, since Covid. There’s the usual hardcore who nod or say a hello as you toil past but the increasing number who blank-out your presence is getting irksome. It’s like being in a big city where eye contact seems taboo!
On a recent non-SOTA bit of hilltop radio I didn’t get a single leg-pull as I waved a 2m yagi towards Ireland. Usually there’s plenty of fun but everyone seemed so insular. Pity, I’ve even got sufficiently organised to avoid the hilltop squalor of wires and radio oddments of when I first started.
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I haven’t noticed that here in Yorkshire (or in the Lake District). Everyone seems to be as friendly as they were pre-Covid.
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I noticed that in the Lakes in late October and it was a breath of fresh air. I don’t know why it’s gone this way in the “core” of Eryri. The outlying hills are still friendly-stranger territory but the main ridges & tops have lost something. It was occurring on a small scale, the odd remarkable incident, before Covid but seemed to have lurched into nearly-normal behaviour once constraints were relaxed.
Nought so queer as folk.
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Is that the Instagram mob who only climb the photogenic hills? I have to say I haven’t noticed that around here.
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I suspect that is a factor and newcomers might be picking up on that as a normal behaviour? The lay-bys are stacked at the weekends, with a fair share of van-lifers winding up the (empty) campsite owners. It is definitely more crowded on the tops. The local MRT is off its feet, never been so busy and at risk of losing volunteers.
I hope this is a phenomenon that will burn out and not flow to other areas.
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