has anyone used chipcon transceivers?

I'm trying to get a CC1100 (on the development board) to talk to a PIC16F876 (on a breadboard), via the SPI bus. Nothing's happening.

I've used SmartRF to download the firmware that 'disengages' the development boards 8051, I've connected the chips SO, SI, SCLK and CS pins and I'm running the power-up routine suggested in the CC1100 manual (p31).

I also have a serial link to hyperterminal to see what's going on. Using the CCS C compiler, the power-up code looks like this:

printf("Talking to CC1100 .. \n\r");
DISABLE_INTERRUPTS(INT_EXT);

output_high(SPI_CLK);
output_low(SPI_DI);

output_low(SPI_CS);
delay_us(10);
output_high(SPI_CS);
delay_us(45);
output_low(SPI_CS);

while (input(SPI_DO) == 1){
printf("waiting for CC1100 1\n\n\r");
delay_cycles(1); }

DATA = 48; //SRES reset chip strobe
printf("writing SRES strobe \n\n\r"); // <------------ STOPS HERE
spi_write(DATA);
printf("written SRES strobe \n\n\r");

while (input(SPI_DO) == 1){
printf("waiting for CC1100 2\n\n\r");
delay_cycles(1);}

printf("chip ready\n\n\r");