Battery life with varying coverage

[blueandwhiteg3]

My Sprint 6800 can eat its entire battery in under three hours if I am driving through an intensive coverage / no coverage / roaming area. This is very frustrating. If I simply forget my phone is on, I can find my battery is dead in a very short period of time. It's very shocking when you expect to be able to make calls, but find your battery is dead, just from you walking or driving for a few hours in the wrong place!

Are there any ways to combat this? Reduce the search rate? I feel like I have to babysit this phone as it stands.

By comparison, my GSM Palm Treo could take a solid 24 hours of constantly gaining and losing coverage before losing battery. I guess I was spoiled...