What you'll find is that most of us who are paid members did so when it was strictly voluntary. Over the last couple of years Lindsay added some features to reward those of us who made donations. But I doubt very many of us paid our money for those features, we did it to help support a great site.
However, the level of enhancements that Lindsay has rolled out in the last 90 or so days changed the situation. Lindsay has put so much time into the added features that he felt there needed to be a firm dividing line between the free and the paid.
Remember, all the basic information is available to all. Lindsay recognizes that a lot of people who have contributed the information in the past ( and those who contribute in the future) did so with the idea that the information would be freely accessible to all. It's only if you want the extra features that are the result of Lindsay's hard work that you have to pay.
Personally, I have no use for about 90% of the paid features; about the only thing I use is the tracking select counties and trunked systems, and the occasional PDF-formatted reports. None the less, I will continue to remain a paid member. This site just blows anything else out of the water. I started scanning back in 1970, when each frequency cost $5 apiece for the crystal, and information was virtually non-existent in printed form.
Those of you who came into the hobby in the last 5 years or so have no perspective on how valuable this site is. The information available for free is mind-blowing to us "old-timers". I guess what I'm trying to say is be grateful for what you have here, even if you never pay a dime for any of the extra features.
Happy Scanning!
Mark