All, I received a note from a rather irate friend who complained he was gave up trying to place an order through the ARRL online store because the system was running so very slowly. Being a good DXer, he tied this experience in with recent (as well as earlier) difficulty with LOTW. My Question: Was the store running slowly within the past 48 hours or so? If so, why? If there was a problem is it fixed permanently? This experience to me reminds me of an admonition my mother gave me many years ago -- i.e. "It takes a long time to develop a good reputation after a bad impression has been made. Between the bad impression made through the then-new web site and the repeated bad impressions made with LOTW, it seems imperative to me that we pull out all the stops to avoid putting the League in a bad light with the amateur radio public for at least many years to come. How many times must we shoot ourselves in the foot before we learn the lesson? Jim Jim Weaver, K8JE Director, Great Lakes Division 5065 Bethany Rd. Mason, OH 45040 Tel. 513-459-1661; e-mail K8JE@arrl.org ARRL: The reason Amateur Radio Is Members: The reason ARRL is