Change Home SID to allow me to connect to Verizons network?

Nope, sorry you are just too far away from the tower.
Setting it to home only would just give you no signal.
You should be ok with roaming on US Cellular for as long as you need to.
US Cellular SIDs in your immediate area (364, 1794) are free roam for Verizon customers.

 

The range of Verizon's cell towers vary depending on how urban / rural the area is,
and of course the power from the antenna and their height above ground.
On average in suburban areas, you should be able to go 1-2 miles with no problem,
but in rural areas, 10+ miles is not too uncommon.
Very urban areas only go about 1/2 mile on average.
It will also vary depending on how many cell sites cover the area, and their capacity.

In most areas, the towers are setup to give a full signal right up to the border area,
and then die out within a few hundred feet of crossing the border area.
You'll find this alot on most interstates.

Headed into Western NC, Alltel is like this on I-26 at the SC-NC state line.

 

I don't know that much about how long it takes to put up service, fill coverage holes, etc.
But for the most part, Verizon is an above-average carrier when it comes to expanding service.

We had Verizon antennas added to a tower here in Gaffney about 2 years ago,
and I didn't even notice the technicians working, until they were almost done.
Within 3 days, the antenna setup was complete, and the signal was up and running.

So my guess is that it could take up to a week to install new panels on an existing tower,
Not sure about building a new tower though.

Now if only Sprint can get over here and install some panels on a tall cell tower thats next to my backyard.
I'm only 3 miles from Interstate 85 and coverage from Sprint here is a disgrace.

 

Signal can go alot further than that. In fact here in the rural parts it is not uncommon at all for towers to cover 25-30 miles gaps. This also depends if verizon has 850 if it is 1900 this is not possible period.

 

Another added factor in this situation is the OP has a Samsung...

That alone does not help his situation. Samsungs are not known to be great signal hogs, like say Nokia and Motorola. This won't help his cause either.

 

That's being way too optimistic in most cases. I've seen 2-3 months to complete a co-lo on an exisiting tower. Usually putting up the panels themselves is the easy part. Then there are a lot of things that can delay the actual RF turn up.

 

Does Verizon or US Cellular still use the home SID system when programming phones? With Sprint the home SID is no longer necessary and is not even set during activation. I could program 1234 or 9999 instead of 4145 and it wouldn't make any difference.

 

I don't think Verizon Does, I don't really know about USCC though, but I don't think they do.

I know Alltel does though,
I get blinking R If I'm outside SID 114 (for Charlotte),
and I only live 5 miles from SID 116 (for Greenville/Spartanburg)

However, I did program my LG AX4270 to not blink for some SIDs if I program them into my phone.
My phone will not blink R (even if roaming on VZW/Sprint) if I program their SID into my phone, which I've already done.

 

Here are the SIDs I programmed into my phone, so it won't blink at all:

NAM1 Home SIDs:

114 (Alltel - Charlotte, NC)
116 (Alltel - Greenville/Spartanburg, SC)
1640 (Alltel - Laurens/Newberry/Greenwood, SC)
156 (Alltel - Charleston, SC)
182 (Alltel - Columbia, SC)
368 (Alltel - Hickory, NC)
1546 (Alltel - Statesville, NC)
142 (Alltel - Triad, NC)
144 (Alltel - Raleigh/Durham, NC)
350 (Alltel - Florence, SC)
3226 (Alltel - Myrtle Beach, SC)
74 (Alltel - Tri Cities, TN-VA)
84 (Alltel - Augusta, GA)
83 (Alltel - Richmond, VA)
520 (Alltel - Savannah/Brunswick, GA)
1650 (Alltel - Orangeburg, SC)
1652 (Alltel - Hilton Head Island, SC)
1522 (Carolina West Wireless - North Wilkesboro, NC)
246 (U.S. Cellular - Asheville, NC)
5667 (Alltel PCS - Jacksonville, FL)

NAM2 Home SIDs:

139 (Verizon - Charlotte, NC)
8 (Verizon - Philadelphia, PA)
22 (Verizon - New York, NY)
250 (Verizon - Atlantic City/South Jersey, NJ)
64 (Verizon - Las Vegas, NV)
41 (Verizon - Atlanta, GA)
93 (Verizon - Tri Cities, TN-VA)
18 (Verizon - Washington, DC/Baltimore, MD)
502 (Verizon - Roanoke, VA)
1015 (Verizon - Augusta/Savannah/Brunswick, GA)
1912 (Verizon - Frederick County, VA)
4138 (Verizon - Jacksonville, FL)
4376 (Sprint - Charlotte, NC)
4162 (Sprint - New York, NY)
4168 (Sprint - Philadelphia, PA)
4145 (Sprint - Las Vegas, NV/Los Angeles, CA)
4195 (Sprint - Washington, DC)
4274 (Sprint - Atlanta, GA/Albuquerque, NM)
4694 (Sprint - Knoxville, TN)
4654 (Sprint - Jacksonville, FL)

I lockout Verizon/Sprint SIDs on NAM1,
and I lockout Alltel SIDs on NAM2

 

hey kyle how did u get those sid's? and how did u edit them? thanks

 

Is your phone an LG? if so there are 2 ways to get into the NAM.
One of them should work if the other one doesn't.

Hit Menu, press 0, then service code is 000000, go into service programming mode.

Or

Hit ##program + model number of your phone.

(so if it's an LG Banter, thats an LG AX265 - so hit ##program265 [##7764726265])
then service code 000000, then go into service programming mode.

See this post for how to program the NAM after getting into the service programming mode:
http://forums.wirelessadvisor.com/alltel-users/62508-sids-and-nam1.html#post446630

If your phone isn't an LG, then I have no clue how to program that phone's NAM settings,
as my experience is only with LG phones (I've had mine 3 years), and LGs are some of the easiest phones to program.

 

Look on The Roaming Zone for the list of SIDs around the country.
Or check out PRL Interpretations to see which SIDs are free or pay roam, or ones that you cannot use (Neg'd SIDs).