>When the program stops at that line, I expand the ot object in the watch window. I then step into the next line (ot.output = lqout). I can see somthing flash in Input in the watch window and then immediately disappear before moving to the next line.

Clearly accessing the Input property is not just reading the input buffer but also clearing it. So the watch window steals the input you want in your var. Don't debug it...

Bye, Olaf.