It is a boring pastime in my opinion for me..but some may like it. I've listened to their nets and it appears to be a self serving function but that's about it. Perhaps many guys in the past joined to get free US military surplus radios and that may have been an incentive. Forget about that now, uncle Sam is not handing anything out in that category...all that stuff goes to other countries and rebels that we support. But the key thing about Mars as well as any emcomm group is that it becomes real boring very quickly. It doesn't always turn out the way you expect it to turn out. So what if you extend you frequency privledges outside of the ham bands; it's not like you're going to work some exotic DX. Oh you think you're going to talk to some aircraft? Forget about it. A ship? forget about it. The Nets sound like a bunch of guys yelping those extended call signs back and forth..wow...really exciting. Message traffic handling, sure if that turns you on. Field activities and seminars? Well if your unit is very active I can see that as the only positive side of joining. But don't think that by joining you're going to rub shoulders with uniformed services.I hear that often Mars guys never go near a base. Again, in my opinion it's a waste of time. Others are facinated by it. Join up and see whether it works for you.