My bad that I didn't post it here.  It's all on me, sorry man!  It was more or less not entering KISS mode correctly 'cause you have to cycle power on the SCS tracker after exiting the program in order that the KISS on command works after you RE-start the program. It's even listed as a known bug over on robust-packet.net's manual.. and I even read it, and dutifully ignored and forgot it.  Lynn sleuthed it fairly quickly but just looking at my RF port's log and seeing it was no bueno.
I may not have figured that out for a thousand years tho.  That's why it's good to have the author on this group. Wonderful in fact.