Narrowed it down to five phones

Leave a comment if you know anything about them:

• Audiovox CDM8910
• LG VX4500
• LG VX6100
• Samsung SCH-a670
• LG VX7000 (Black)

There is also a chance that I may be able to get something over $100 for free. If that is the case, the following phones up to $200 are in the running, but I haven't looked closely at any of them (I'm not going to think about anything above that unless I find out conclusively that I can go that high.)

• Kyocera KX2
• LG VX8000

Anyway, I'll be looking more closely at the first five over this week, and will be acquiring my favorite over the weekend.

UPDATE: Check this out, it's on the page for every "all digital phone" (which, until now, I thought was a good thing):

When digital service is not available your device will not operate or be able to make 911 calls.

So that's pretty scary. I've been places with analog-only on my "tri-mode" LG VX10. While I suppose they are increasing their digital coverage and it seems that most phones are going that way (out of my 7, only the VX6100 and the kyocera are tri-mode), it scares me from a safety standpoint.
This might explain why I had it easier up at Read with my phone. Perhaps most others had "all digital" phones.
I need to find more about this issue, but if my fears are confirmed, it is higly likely that I will go with the LG VX6100.