I just tried it with 6.03 & 6.1 and it worked perfectly both times.
Are you running a script that may have altered the MSG command?
Try using !. msg $active $1- and see if that works.
Edit: Using ! before a command makes it bypass all scripts.
From mIRC Help File ...
If you want to perform a command without it being processed as an alias, you can prefix it with a ! exclamation mark
Last edited by r0ck0; 18/09/03 03:03 PM.