Problem with DSExecute

[ray.wurlod]

There's nothing wrong with your Call statement, though I would initialize the return variables before making the call.
homeDir = ""
syscode = 0
Call DSExecute("UNIX","echo $HOME",homeDir,syscode)

The very fact that you can assert that homeDir and syscode contain values leads me to believe that more statements are being executed after the call to DSExecute - otherwise how can you determine that the values are correct?
Consequently your analysis that "the job aborts after executing this line" cannot be read as "immediately after this line", and your implication that the call to DSExecute is to blame for the job aborting is almost certainly incorrect.

What messages appear in the job log or in &PH& after the job aborts? Give us any warning messages, as well as the fatal message. These will assist in diagnosing why your job may be failing.