You were. In this context, a fully-configured kernel source tree means one for which "make config|menuconfig|xconfig" and "make dep" have been run.
> installation of my wireless Cisco Aironet card which claimed I needed to > have a working kernel source tree, I assumed this meant I needed to have > compiled my kernel from the source, but my assumptions have been wrong > so far so it wouldn't surprise me if I was wrong once again.