more detective work but no closer to fixing this problem. I have eliminated the radio and foot switch  as a problem. Hooked the ft sw direct to the back of the 5000 and keys up rtty all ok. MMTTY stand alone, Dx4WIN/mmtty and writelog with mmtty all go into transmit and will show the F messages going out... except the radio is not keyed and no RF going out. All of the router settings, mmtty, dx4win and writelog are all the same as a month ago. Nothing is changed. Only thing different is the microKeyer 2 will not key the rig in SSB mode via the foot switch and will not key then rig in rtty mode. No problem with the CW mode. I have checked all the cables... seated nice and tight. I deleted the router software completely and re-installed and created all new virtual ports... no change. The FSK led flashes continuously when ever in rtty mode which it never did before. Starting to think the lightening that took out the 5000 front end also messed with the microKeyer. I just don't know where to go from here! Any ideas? so frustrating... 73's Cort K4WI