NETS? Not fish NETS. Not hair NETS. Not wild animal NETS. My wife is beginning to wonder why I do "things" and what "things" are for. Like: "Why do you have a computer?" and "What do you do with your computer?" and "Why do you talk on those NETS?" What good are those NETS? I can tell you that HAM radio is a hobby for fun, without the fun `they ain't no fun!' Sorry! Nets perform an important function in amateur radio. They provide training and expertise so to speak in the communications skills that come naturally to few. These skills (and properly working equipment, which is also tested by regular NET participation) gives our community, our state, our country, the high speed communications between local government offices and regional offices and the state capitol and our nations capitol when other forms of communications fail in times of national disasters, be it hurricanes, flood, fire, or earth quake. that for a run on sentence!) HAMS with hand held radios can get a message to one that has an emergency power source (batteries or an emergency generator) or a ham either outside of the disaster area that can relay it entirely out of the disaster area, (using H.F.?) like from your city hall (or county seat) to the state capitol. I haven't mentioned mobile ham radios or disaster relief communications setup with little or no notice in virtually every Red Cross shelter, mostly schools and other government buildings. We even have regular nets and exercises from these places of safety. Without regular training (reads NETS) attempts to do this without any notice would look like watching a Keystone Cops movie. NETS are also every HAM's source of local news and information, if you can't check in by all means listen to one or two every week! If you don't have a VHF or UHF radio, use or borrow a scanner and see if I'm not right. Ron KA4INM ka4inm@qsl.net