diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index bfca542..732628e 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -47,9 +47,10 @@ stopped itself on the `\n` it arrived with, one reading in.
   that bit-bangs the same pin receives perfectly and answers into nothing.
 
 `ctest` reads all three back out of the emitted image (`test/check_reachability.py`),
-because none of them is visible from the source alone and the failure mode is an
-unreflashable board. Both the address and the watchdog checks are red-proven
-against the legacy behaviour they exist to catch.
+with the image's clearance below the boot section, because none of them is
+visible from the source alone and the failure mode is an unreflashable board.
+Each is red-proven: the address and the watchdog checks against the legacy
+behaviour they exist to catch, the USART check against the write removed.
 
 The Steinhart–Hart math of the legacy firmware (runtime doubles + libm
 log) is gone: the Beta equation and the cubic fan curve are evaluated
diff --git a/test/check_reachability.py b/test/check_reachability.py
index 7ec8b31..81d7b59 100644
--- a/test/check_reachability.py
+++ b/test/check_reachability.py
@@ -6,25 +6,20 @@ bootloader is the running firmware's `bootloader` command, so a firmware that
 gets that route wrong is a board that cannot be reflashed - and the failure is
 silent, because everything else still works.
 
-It has been wrong before. The firmware this one replaces probed and jumped to
-`0x7800`, the base of a 2 KB boot section, while the board's loader sits at
-`0x7e00`; `check()` therefore read an erased byte, was false, and the command
-never arrived anywhere. Nothing about that is visible short of trying it on the
-hardware, which is what this replaces.
-
-Three properties, all read out of the disassembly rather than the source:
+Four properties, all read out of the disassembly rather than the source:
 
 1. The image ends below the boot section. `hfuse d4` puts that at 0x7c00, so an
    application reaching into it would be overwritten by the loader - or worse,
    executed at reset, since BOOTRST points there.
 2. The hand-over targets the loader base. A word address of 0x3f00 is byte
-   0x7e00; anything else is the 0x7800 bug again.
-3. The hand-over does not arm the watchdog. pureboot hands straight back on
-   WDRF by design, so a reset-based route reaches it and opens no window. The
-   legacy firmware's route was exactly that, and it is the one change that
-   cannot be walked back from the host.
+   0x7e00; 0x7800, a 2 KB boot section's base, reads erased on this board.
+3. The hand-over releases the USART first. While TXEN0 is set the peripheral
+   owns PD1, so a loader that bit-bangs the pin answers into nothing.
+4. The hand-over does not arm the watchdog. pureboot hands straight back on
+   WDRF by design, so a reset-based route reaches it and opens no window.
 
-    check_reachability.py --objdump avr-objdump --elf fantemp --image fantemp.bin
+    check_reachability.py --objdump avr-objdump --elf fantemp --image fantemp.bin \
+        --loader-base 0x7e00
 """
 
 from __future__ import annotations
@@ -36,6 +31,7 @@ import subprocess
 import sys
 
 BOOT_SECTION = 0x7C00  # hfuse d4: BOOTSZ 512 words - a fuse fact, not a loader one
+UCSR0B = 0xC1
 WDTCSR = 0x60
 
 
@@ -73,17 +69,21 @@ def main() -> int:
     # loads the *word* address into a register pair immediately before it.
     lines = text.splitlines()
     helper = re.compile(r"\b(?:r?call)\b.*<_ZN3app10bootloader4call")
-    sites = []
+    release = re.compile(rf"\bsts\s+0x00{UCSR0B:02X},\s*r1\b", re.I)
+    sites, unreleased = [], 0
     for index, line in enumerate(lines):
         if not helper.search(line):
             continue
         held: dict[str, int] = {}
-        for back in lines[max(0, index - 8):index]:
+        window = lines[max(0, index - 8):index]
+        for back in window:
             if m := re.search(r"\bldi\s+(r\d+),\s*0x([0-9A-Fa-f]{2})", back):
                 held[m.group(1)] = int(m.group(2), 16)
         # The AVR ABI passes the pointer in r25:r24.
         if "r24" in held and "r25" in held:
             sites.append(held["r25"] << 8 | held["r24"])
+        if not any(release.search(back) for back in window):
+            unreleased += 1
 
     want = loader_base // 2
     if not sites:
@@ -97,6 +97,12 @@ def main() -> int:
         print(f"  ok    all {len(sites)} hand-over site(s) target word 0x{want:04x} "
               f"(byte 0x{loader_base:04x})")
 
+    if unreleased:
+        failures.append(f"{unreleased} hand-over site(s) do not clear UCSR0B first - "
+                        f"the USART keeps PD1 and the loader answers into nothing")
+    elif sites:
+        print("  ok    every hand-over site clears UCSR0B before the jump")
+
     # An icall/ijmp has to exist for that address to be jumped to indirectly.
     if not re.search(r"\b(icall|ijmp)\b", text):
         failures.append("no icall/ijmp - the hand-over cannot reach across flash")