I have a max232 setup on a bread board with an atmega8 chip, i have got it to work fine and do various things like turn on LEDs and manipulate data i send to it through the com port etc so i know it works fine.
I connected my EM-406 module to my max232 chip, and this is what it spits out.
4GPRMs.0???5³.0³6/V,291??7,*2Ìóá<GPwGq.8???57.0³6/,0/0?/,M,0/0/M,0???«5³
4GPwSA.q.1/,*1Ñóa³4MÚsöööVvç†6göf