[solved]raising LMIC_DEBUG_LEVEL is not increasing debug output

No I had not and that solved the problem. Thank you! The README.md file I found in the Arduino library said this about that #define and so I assumed it would default to Serial:

The remaining variables are rarely used, but we list them here for completeness.

#### Changing debug output

#define LMIC_PRINTF_TO SerialLikeObject

This variable should be set to the name of a Serial-like object, used for printing messages. If not defined, Serial
is assumed.