Hi Andy & Bartosz. Forgive me, I didn't mention the following:

1. Assembler (using strictly ASM at the moment) is the old A51 for DOS. Syntax is ".ORG" and works fine (output to HEX file o.k.)

2. Assembles mov DPTR,#STRING1 as "mov DPTR,#0xxxh" as you would expect...dissassembled to verify as you mentioned.

I will be posting results of latest posted suggestions soon...I've ordered an EPROM programmer to finally eliminate guesswork.

Thanks! Have a great weekend.

Marty :)