Usually the phone uses the Preferred Roaming List (PRL) that tells the
phone to use a particular signal over another. The phone scans the
available frequencies and compares the System ID (SID) against the
ones in the PRL. The Verizon ones are Priority 1, Extended Network
partners are in lower priorities, and roaming partners are in the
lowest priorities.

The 800 (rather 850) MHz cell band has an "A" and "B" band (The A band
comes first, the B band comes second.. its a little more complicated
than that, but I won't go into that here). The 1900 MHz PCS bands
(digital only) are "C" through "F".

When the phone needs to roam *AND* the SID of the signal it finds is
NOT in the PRL, the phone will then look at the "Auto A" or "Auto B"
function to determine which signal the phone should use. This is a
throwback to the old AMPS (analog) days.

So does it really matter what you set it to? Not really anymore except
in certain rare cases when the phone needs to roam onto a partner that
is NOT in the PRL. Most of the time, setting it to "Auto B" makes
sense since in most areas Verizon is in the 850 MHZ "B" band. Yes,
Verizon is also in the "A" band in some areas (Atlanta, GA for
example) and in some areas they are in the 1900 MHz PCS band.

I have read on here that at the Grand Canyon that you should put the
phone into "Auto A" to roam onto Alltel (an Extended Network partner)
but I don't know if that is the case anymore or not.

If you want to know more about what a PRL is and a PRL list, look at
these sites:

http://www.mountainwireless.com/prl.shtml

and

http://www.rainyday.ca/~dialtone/

I also have a Motorola V325. Its a pretty good phone. There are some
neat tricks that you can do with the phone. Let me know via E-mail if
you're interested.

Dave

dmine45 at yahoo dot com