Okay...an update trying various different things to get the HWR working...

You cannot form an "H" with two strokes down and then a cross bar. When you start the second downstroke it assumes the letter is finished. Do a downstroke, crossbar and then downstroke and it works.

Similar problems when you do an "*" or a "#". You have to do anything but the vertical first.

I now can get about 99% reliability with the HWR. I still can't get it to do a "-" instead of a "_", but I guess that's what the symbol button on the right hand side of the HWR entry area is for. I use a lot more "-"s than "_"s, so why didn't Nokia have it choose the more probable character than the least probable?