I'm just reading this and joined this site. James, for a person working for AFN, you are quite naive. In Asia, you can't buy them at all from AAFES/NEX. They are a monopoly and decided not to sell decoders but rent them and make a lot of money! Initially, the cost to rent one for one year was the same a buying one. When force protection funds purchased decoders for SOFA personnel to borrow; AAFES cut their rental fees in half; due to extreamly poor rental customers. They even required you to have a STAR card to rent one; good old AAFES! Anyway, (any) DOD member or military retiree can buy/rent/authorize a decoder and some places in Asia are getting out of the loaner business becuase of the logistics/support/repair costs. Here, as people PCS the dishes are sent to DRMO and the decoders are put in a warehouse pending disposition instructions; they will not be loaned out again. So, thanks to AAFES (DOD); it isn't "Stupid" to rent one if that is your only choice.
TJ |