no reception, 3 bars on original firmware

You don't have to answer this right now if you don't want to, it can wait. I have been working on this for a few months. I have never posted on this mailing list before, but I have read many of the other posts. Just so you know, I am currently 14 years old and I have autism(which is the reason why I am obsessed with computers and electronics). I am having trouble getting any signal at all. the signal is around -111 dBm on every channel with the rf gain set on high. The original firmware works fine with an at&t sim card and has 3 bars. The linux distro that I am running is backtrack 4. While trying to diagnose this, I tried mobile and layer23 on a known good channel from a nokia 3100 series phone in netmonitor mode. and in scanning mode on most of the branches that I compiled. I have looked on the wiki and google. I have also tried to figure out how parts of the source code work. I have even tried this on two different boards, the compal_e88 and compal_e86. Has anybody else had this problem? Where exactly is the antenna switch? That could be the problem, if it connects to the headset slot. I have a homemade t191 cable, that uploads the firmware just fine, but I am wondering about the LOST message after the dsp download. What does the LOST message mean? Thank you for your help, Calvin