Practical Limits of Serial communications?

I'm not even trying to turn the line at this point... strictly one-way communication not happening.

Here is some code from the Yourduino site I adjusted for the Slave. Note the constantly-'LOW' RE/DE pin, i.e. receive mode only.

/* YourDuino RS485 Slave Node A Example
 terry@yourduino.com */

/*-----( Declare Variables )-----*/
int ledPin=13;
int EN = 6;
byte Val;

void setup()/****** SETUP: RUNS ONCE ******/
{
  pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT );
  pinMode(EN, OUTPUT );
  Serial.begin (28800);
  Serial.println("Setup Complete.");
}//--(end setup )---

void loop()  /****** LOOP: RUNS CONSTANTLY ******/
{
  // receive Data
  digitalWrite (EN, LOW ); // enable receive
  Val = Serial.read ();
  Serial.println(Val);
  if (-1 != Val) 
  {
    if ( 'A' == Val) 
    {
      digitalWrite (ledPin, HIGH );
      delay (500);
      digitalWrite (ledPin, LOW );
      delay (500);
    }
  
  }
}//--(end main loop )---

And here is the master code. It is running on a 1284P, the first serial bus ends in the FTDI header, while Serial1 is attached directly to the RS485 chip inputs. I probably should simplify this to the point where the RE/DE pin is always high and see if that makes any difference.

/* YourDuino RS485 Master Node Example
 terry@yourduino.com */

/*-----( Declare Variables )-----*/
int EN = 12;
int LED_PIN =7;

void setup() /****** SETUP: RUNS ONCE ******/
{
  pinMode(EN, OUTPUT );
  pinMode(LED_PIN, OUTPUT );
  Serial.begin (28800);
  Serial1.begin (28800);
}//--(end setup )---

void loop()    /****** LOOP: RUNS CONSTANTLY ******/
{
  // Send Data
  digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH ); // turn on light
  Serial.print ( 'A' ); //FTDI Header Send

  digitalWrite(EN, HIGH ); // enable send
  delay (1); //wait for RS485 chip to be active
  Serial1.print ( 'A' ); //RS485 Bus Send
  delayMicroseconds (660); ////delay recommended by Nick Gammon to deal with the serial buffer clearing before TX is complete
  digitalWrite(EN, LOW ); // disable send
  
  delay(1000);  
  digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW ); // turn off light
  Serial.print ( 'B' );//FTDI Header Send
  
  digitalWrite(EN, HIGH ); // enable send
  delay(1); //wait for RS485 chip to be active
  Serial1.print ( 'B' ); //RS485 Bus Send
  delayMicroseconds (660);  //delay recommended by Nick Gammon to deal with the serial buffer clearing before TX is complete
  digitalWrite(EN, LOW ); // disable send
  delay (1000);
}//--(end main loop )---