Multicomponent ELF/VLF wave data from the ISEE 1 satellite have been analyzed with the aim of identifying the generation mechanism of plasmaspheric hiss, and especially of determining whether it involves wave propagation on cyclic trajectories. The data were taken from four passes of the satellite, of which two were close to the geomagnetic equatorial plane and two were farther from it; all four occurred during magnetically quiet periods. The principal method of analysis was calculation of the wave distribution functions. The waves appear to have been generated over a wide range of altitudes within the plasmasphere, and most, though not all, of them were propagating obliquely with respect to the Earth's magnetic field. On one of the passes near the equator, some wave energy was observed at small wave normal angles, and these waves may have been propagating on cyclic trajectories. Even here, however, obliquely propagating waves were predominant, a finding that is difficult to reconcile with the classical quasi‐linear generation mechanism or its variants. The conclusion is that another mechanism, probably nonlinear, must have been generating most of the hiss observed on these four passes.