ah yes. Indeed I already did that - thanks Daniel.

Actually I figured out the problem I had encountered - previously (a few years and AFNI iterations ago) I had only used the NN1 in the 3drefit command - before bi-sided was even an option so my 3drefit code was outdated. When I instead used the correct output generated from 3dClustSim (with ALL the -niml codes and dataset) I was able to get the "on the fly" alphas in the report table running properly! Go figure, trying to do things the way they've "always" been done in the past, doesn't always work :)

I'm posting my silly mistake and resolution here in case it's an informative educational experience for anyone else :)

thanks!!