CDMA Desire - Clean ROM, Radios

[ChaosTheory]

So, just got my new Desire, and thoroughly enjoying native Android (Was using XDAndroid on TP). That being said, I have a couple questions and hopefully a contribution.

My carrier is fairly small (just hit 50,000 customers ) and my last phone (the Touch Pro) had a very clean stock ROM, and so I dumped it for use in the community. It appears that once again there is very little carrier modification to the phone, so anyone will to guide me through dumping an Android is welcome to the result If it requires rooting it may be a bit before I delve that far into things, pretty happy with it as is, though the ability to remove unwanted programs like Amazon MP3 and use App2SD may bring that sooner rather than later. If anyone has any non-root alternatives I would be immensely grateful!

Now for my question - I spend a good portion of my time out in the middle of nowhere, so reception is sketchy at times. On my TP I was able to update to a Telus radio that gave pretty good improvement, still not perfect, but I would reliably have 1-2 bars rather than frequent "no service". Hoping to be able to do something similar with the Desire, and again hopefully without rooting, but I may be hoping for too much.

Thanks to all those out there who do so much!