Hi GoForSmoke.
i made no claims to prowess, just relentlessness. Your note on 9600 is a bit cryptic, but it would suggest that my problem is in the receiver end, not the sender. I also suspect that you are recommending Nick's works to me.
I might add that the code above produces a lot of errors in the SD file running even at 19200 bps.
so it's very clear that this isn't the way to do it.
thanks,
john