Thanks for the reply incognito53
I was kinda thinking that, I was farily sure a GSM bootloader wouldn't be kind to my CDMA fon...
Turns out I finally solved the problem...
Somehow in the migration process my
Home SID got wiped out so my phone wasn't communicating with any towers... apparently the 1.08 radio has a SID/NID hardcoded or similar
Can't beleive I missed that... but soon as I added it back I was able to get signal with all the listed radios... so far best signal I get is with the Verizon 1.03.03F.
We shall see how battery life is.. thanks for everyones help!