Thanks to all who responded to my queries. I finally bit the bullet and found an OBD reader on ebay ($20.00 + shipping - how can you lose) and ordered it up. Aside from having a pretty mean grip on the OBD plug, the unit powered up all right and read the system as clear. Next day I took the vehicle in for its AirCare inspection prior to renewing licence and insurance (British Columbia, y'know) and the vehicle passed with flying colo(u)rs; however, the inspection report listed several "monitors not set: Catalyst, Evaporative, Secondary Air"...and on and on.
For those of you in the know, would these 'monitors not set' be a function of the driving pattern required before an inspection of this nature, which I've heard and read about in this forum, or perhaps sensors which aren't working, or not passed on to the reader at the facility? Not a big issue, as we passed the inspection, but I'd like to know anyway. Haven't had the opportunity to run it past my advisors locally, but I'll get to that eventually, I guess.
As for the code reader itself,I'll test it further with the dreaded "Gas Cap Open" warning, and ensure that it really can read codes, and cancel the Check Engine light, and then relax until the next event

gus_boy