ATMega328 and 7400 chips

adwsystems:
I see it now. Thank you. I didn't know the Serial TL was idle high/active low, which shocked me and then through me.

Working now.

Good that you got things working!

With all seriousness, you can see your circuit and you have a good relationship with the wiring , we cannot see a thing.

Writing a bunch of words for a schematic is quite difficult in making something visual.

Attaching a proper schematic shows others exactly what's happening.