GPS NMEA interface problems

Hey forum So as you may guess, I am trying to read GPS data which is in the NMEA format through the RS-232 serial port. My current settings are Baud:4800 StopBits:1 Parity:None Bits:8 Handshake:no I am getting data coming into the controller from the GPS unit, the problem is that the data that I am receiving appears to be bunk. I never once receive a $ character, which is at the head of every GPS string. Also, using the OSC, I see that I am getting characters like 246 ( the divide symbol according to the ascii table), which should not happen. Does anyone know what my problem might be, or what I could do to try and fix this situation? So far I have checked my port settings against OSC, and the only thing that came back wrong was the Baud, but apparently that is an known bug between OSC & mchelper. I also though that the characters might be coming in backwards (ie Big endian vs little endian), but that theory was shot down when I learned that $ is the same in both formats. I have confirmed that the GPS is working properly through another serial port. Also, I have three wires of the serial port hooked up; the Tx, Rx, and Gnd. Thanks in advance for the help. The Stigg