The firmware issues sound a bit ominous, especially if other hardware nearby took damage.
I've been using XP to configure T2s and OTs for a while now, so that shouldn't be a problem. since there's damaged hardware in the house, make sure your serial port works (e.g. use a loopback connector, or a null modem to connect to another serial port, then fire up hyperterm, etc on each end and see if they talk to each other). For the failure to transmit, does the radio key up when the T2 LED indicates transmission? If not, check out Q1, which is the transistor responsible for PTT. -Jason kg4wsv
