Just an addendum:
Newb error: my environment parameters were not set up ac I thought.
After fixing this the error I get now is:

tmp\obj\debug_shared\qtmain_win.obj
tmp\obj\debug_shared\qtmain_win.obj : fatal error LNK1112: module machine type 'X86' conflicts with target machine type 'THUMB'
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: '"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\ce\bin\x86_arm\lib.EXE"' : return code '0x458'
Stop.
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: '"c:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 9.0\VC\BIN\nmake.exe"' : return code '0x2'
Stop.
NMAKE : fatal error U1077: 'cd' : return code '0x2'
Stop.

thanks in advance
the Congenital Optimist