[ic] GPG troubles

[Leon Harris]

Hi,
I am having hassles with using gpg to send encrypted credit card info.

I create my selfsigned keys
gpg --key-gen

I  export the pub key to an orders.pub file.
I save the private key for use on my mail client (but not where gpg can
find it).
I remove all other files in ~/.gnupg
I import the orders.pub key into my gpg keyring
  gpg --import orders.pub

and I still get the message
gpg: key 9D1C5688: secret key without public key - skipped
Now there is no secret key where gpg can see it.

A direct following of the gnu privacy handbook recipes for key creation
does not help me - it gives me a similar result.

I am mailing to orders@cables.com, my gpg key is for orders@cables.com,
all cables.com traffic is sent  elsewhere by a @cables.com directive in
sendmails virtusertable.

logging in /tmp/icdebug tells me

Vend::Order:debug: called pgp_encrypt key= cmd=
Vend::Order:debug: after  pgp_encrypt key=/home/cables/.gnupg/keyring.pub
cmd=/usr/bin/gpg -ea --always-trust -r orders@cables.com 2>/dev/null

error.log says
PGP failed with status 131072:

WTF is going wrong ?

any help much appreciated.

Cheers,
leon.
[spits it and stomps off to bed]