encoding to bytes

hey guys, im sending signals over tcp/ip and using this to convert a string to bytes.

VB Code:

sendBytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(message)

is there a way to bypass this string conversion and just set sendBytes as an array of bytes. For instance:

VB Code:

sendBytes = bytes(81 01 04 62 02 ff)

thanks guys

VB Code:

sendBytes = New Byte() {&H81, &H1, &H4, &H62, &H2, &HFF}