diff --git a/icu4c/source/test/iotest/filetst.c b/icu4c/source/test/iotest/filetst.c
index 80f4653f8ed..88f510b211a 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/test/iotest/filetst.c
+++ b/icu4c/source/test/iotest/filetst.c
@@ -1443,7 +1443,7 @@ static void TestFileWriteRetval(const char * a_pszEncoding) {
     UChar   testChar = 0xBEEF; 
 
     if (!*a_pszEncoding || 0 == strcmp(a_pszEncoding, "ASCII")) { 
-        testChar = 'A'; /* otherwise read test will fail */ 
+        testChar = 0x65; /* 'A' - otherwise read test will fail */ 
     } 
 
     buffer = (UChar*) malloc(expected * sizeof(UChar)); 
@@ -1478,8 +1478,9 @@ static void TestFileWriteRetval(const char * a_pszEncoding) {
         return; 
     } 
     for (count = 0; count < expected; ++count) { 
-        if (u_fgetc(myFile) != testChar) { 
-            log_err("u_fgetc returned unexpected character\n"); 
+        UChar gotChar = u_fgetc(myFile);
+	if(gotChar != testChar) {
+            log_err("u_fgetc returned unexpected character U+%04X expected U+%04X\n", gotChar, testChar); 
             u_fclose(myFile); 
             return; 
         }