No I have not tried those instructions in that post, yet.. I'm sure I'll be board tomorrow and give it a go. Thanks for the link. Also per this page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Network_Code cricket is listed as
310 016 Cricket Communications Operational CDMA / EV-DO 1900 1700 2100
which makes me beleive that if I can get the 016 to stick, without resetting, all will be well.. The only time the OS resets is when I change this the MNC to 016.. After changing the other settings I can see the 3G and somewhere under the APN menu I can register to a network..