Okay, I finally got the thing to work by slipping a command into the init
string (I'd been typing the whole string into the provided window, not
realizing that the window ADDED to the original string, rather than replaced
it, which is what I'd thought I was doing...so I was ending up with two
strings at once which just confused the hell out of the modem. Anyway, it's
all better now (I think). Many thanks for the assists.

jms