well, i managed to rebuild both disks, upgrade to 1.03rc and successfully synchronize.

the specific problems it turned out i needed to overcome were:

1. rebuild/upgrade one disk at a time.

2. needed to use a terminal program to watch the rebuild kernal boot and hit the return key to rebuild the one that was sort of already built (worth it just to see the phrase '...let fly the penguins of linux.')

3. realized (thanks to http://www.dmoore.com/empeghdd.htm) that i needed to use a terminal program other the hyperterminal (which seemed to simply ignore my input -- i am sure i am missing some cryptic setting, but i just went ahead and used another terminal program.)

thanks for all the excellent assistance/guidance!

for those who asked, i have unit 000127 which was given/lent to me by a friend. what are they worth these days? now my girlfriend wants one. :) is there a preferred marketplace for used mk1 empegs? or are they simply unobtanium?

finally, am i to understand that there is no radio tuner in the mk1? i get tuner-like ui, but haven't actually hooked it to an antenna and from some of the comments i read, it sounded like only newest mk2 units have a tuner. can someone educate me on the whole tuner technohistory or point me in the right direction. thanks again.

::jory

ps: i incorrectly stated in my question that i had alternated between a 1.02beta and a 1.03rc. i had intended to write 1.02 release. sorry for any confusion.