I am attempting to plan a periodic battery recharge schedule
    and would appreciate comments regarding the best way to keep
    the phones ready and in good battery condition for extended
    periods of (hopefully) no emergency usage.

I would be very tempted to get some of those "emergency" battery packs
that allow most cell phones to be run on "standard" alkaline batteries.

NiCds suck; especially old NiCds.  I have several old laptops computers
that are perfectly usable other than having completely unusable batteries.

BillW

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