RX50's on a PC?

Has anyone tried wiring an 8" RX52 floppy straight to a modern PC controller? I did the best I know how, and I *appear* to have a semi-functioning device attached. Trying to read/format the disk with PUTR under MsDOS) gives me a verification error and an error about Track 0. Does this sound more like a media error? The disks (Dysan 101/1) appear to be in fine condition, having been stored in rigid notebooks in plastic sleeves for the last 10 years or so in a "media-friendly" environment. There are also lifecycle logs in the sleves, which indicate that they were initialized and only written to once. I've been digging around, trying to get enough information to attempt to set up Forth on my OS-less 11/23, but I don't have another functioning system to work with (the chicken and the egg). Am I dreaming that I'm going to be able to get anything accomplished with an emulator and a pair of 8" floppys Frankensteined to my PC? On a similar note, does anyone happen to have a Compaticard for trade/sale? Aaron