Range test gives me €€€

Im new to all this so please be gentle. here we go, Im using a pic18f4525, XBee S1. i have 1 xbee chip plugged into my USB and the other on my breadboard. My pic requires 5v to power and the xbee takes 2.8-3.4. here is my code, just very simple:

OpenUSART(USART_TX_INT_OFF & USART_RX_INT_OFF & USART_ASYNCH_MODE &
USART_EIGHT_BIT & USART_CONT_RX & USART_BRGH_LOW, 129);

while(1)
{
  while(BusyUSART());
  putrsUSART("hello world

\r");
Delay10KTCYx(100);
LATDbits.LATD2=1;
Delay10KTCYx(10);
LATDbits.LATD2=0;
Delay10KTCYx(10);
}
}

What im trying to accomplish is sending Hello World across the screen on X-CTU, because eventually im gonna use the xbee as a communication to follow through my code once my robot is operating to see if and where it messes up. i have resistors across the transmit line to drop voltage before it gets to the xbee din line. X-CTU has a successful connection between chips, my baud rate it correct at 1200. Im getting €€€’s for range test and im getting “…” in my terminal. can anyone assist me on what im doing wrong?