Actually it's because of what Chessnut said in that thread.
becomes
echo -a - `~$* $+(test,`~$*)
`~$* has to be a space delimited token for mIRC to convert it to the corresponding token so you end with:
(for the first iteration)
As Chessnut stated, a way around it would be:
scon -r echo -a - $* $!+(test, $* )
to ensure that $* evaluates with spaces surrounding it.