Calling Matlab from Labview returns a 1047 error - what am I doing wrong

[what??]

above

[JRA]

Take a look at this Knowledge Base from NI's website. It describes exactly the problem you described, so this should help you out. Best of luck!

[Zvezdana S.]

Does your script work fine in MATLAB? Do you run a VI or an .exe?
MATLAB must be running, otherwise LabVIEW will be unable to access the MATLAB server. This will cause the 1047 error. Manually start MATLAB, and your program should run without the error.
The following KnowledgeBase may also be useful in troubleshooting this issue

LabVIEW 6.x and Earlier Does Not Interface Properly with MATLAB 6.1 or MATLAB 6.5

Zvezdana S.
National Instruments