To augment a previous thread entered a few months ago (from K5DHL)... I now have a pretty good HF setup, a couple real nice radios (one for voice, & one for digital), a nice vertical antenna + others strung among the forest, tuners, linears, etc. ..... & I am not so inclinded to re-up my MARS association. As I see it, the MARS organization is a semi-militarized organization of mostly civilian volunteers. My previous experience in Oklahoma seems like some in leadership ranks tend to see and treat the MARS participants as lower level enlisted folks, with mandatory direction given or "else" scenarios..... - a mechanism that doesn't work well for volunteers (i.e. ya can't treat adult volunteers like privates, something many former NCO's don't easily comprehend). I guess it's no wonder there are very few volunteers in Oklahoma. The mandatory time on the NETs was not so enjoyable (even when I could only receive, since I couldn't get a decend SWR during my 6 month training period) but it became just a "putting in the time" gig, instead of a genuine enjoyable ham radio experience.... and the information exchanged was nothing more than a "social" event with lots of QRM. In conclusion I hope the MARS mission is successful, whatever that is, or morphs into.... If I felt I could genuinely contribute to viable organization for the benefit of Americans I would re-up in a heartbeat.