Thanks for your help etabeta and robbert, I think i have this hash thing working now.
I have been using the Tosec files and it appears that many of the hash files are not based on that set. After further experimentation i have found that the files i have for aquarius and a800 give the expected results in messui.
Others like the the Tosec a7800 files dont match at all with the a7800.hsi.
It strikes me from what i have read on the xml list's that they will supercede the hash file system, is this right?