Kyocera KPC680 on Verizon worse EVDO than tethered VX8100

jedon

I am moving to the mountains/woods and without an amp and antenna there is no cell signal of any kind there. With an amp and antenna ( 12" mag mount) I was able make calls from 2 places on the property. I then tethered my VX8100 to my laptop and was able to get EVDO at about 300kbps. I figured that was better than satellite so I ordered a KPC680 and antenna adapters etc and headed out to the land to try it out. Well no matter where I was I could not connect with the KPC680 in any configuration, hooked to the antenna directly, antenna plus amp, or just on it's own, it just won't connect. I've had it able to connect to a really weak signal before, -124db inside a building so it can connect to bad signals, I don't understand why it won't connect. In another post here I read someone having similar issues with a blackberry and they did *222 99 or something and updated secondary tower information, can I do that with the KPC680? I even tried a 14db yagi and a 9db marine antenna, nothing worked.
I tried hooking the amp/antenna up to the KPC680 when I was in town and had a decent signal, -82db or so and then when I connect the amp/antenna it goes to -83db!!
Any ideas?!
Thanks!
-Jedon