I need to have my microcontroller act upon different commands sent. For example if "GC" is sent it turns on a motor. If "GQ" is sent it sends back data.

I would expect it to be something like this, as many other BASIC languages use:

hserin [command]
if command = "GC" then ....

if command = "GQ" then....

where the text inside the parentheses is what is compared. How is this done in PicBasic?

WAIT kind of does that but if I understand its operation correctly the program is suspend waiting for the text string. I need to check to see if anything was received and if so act on it but if not go do other things. I can't suspend everything and wait.

A STRING variable type would be handy.