Doug Smith W9WI wrote:

My grand total of DXpedition experience consists of a few QSOs on 2
meters while mobile in Canada. If the Indian government were to invite
me to bring my old TS-680 and a Windom to VU4, should I turn them down?

No. But would you turn down spending a couple of hours playing with PED
before that?

What's been left out of this whole discussion is the aspect of *FUN*.
Everybody wants to have some fun either working the DX or being the DX, but
it certainly is a lot more fun to have split pile ups instead of a simplex
ones. We should try to make the rare ones understand that it's really great
fun working one station after the after, completely forgetting about time
and space, ignoring bodily needs just to dig out that creepy /QRP among the
warmonging kilowatt guys, giving tiny hints for the deserving with regard to
your RX frequency (Remember that '73 de ZL9CI'?).

The elation of running a real tail-end QSO on both sides, the adrenaline
kick of having thousands of discplined JAs coming along like the pearls of a
string (each of them being equally PW), the evil grin of deliberately
ignoring the out-of-turn caller and virtually seeing his head turning red in
frustration. Hearing the top DXer working you with a single call, knowing
that he followed you for a couple of minutes and sent his call just once,
but doing so with perfect timing and precise knowledge about his own TX
frequency. Getting a feeling for propagation, noticing in awe that graylight
propagation is not some mysterious thing, but a tantalizing phenomenon that
makes your heart beat faster. The casual "tnx new one" after a quick 5nn.

It's fun, guy, sheer fun and we should to everything to make those about to
start a trip to a rare one understand the fun part of it.

Peter Lemken
DF5JT
Berlin

--
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in
a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly
used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming, 'Wow, what a ride!'