Looks like Adam's going to have to use a queue instead. I'd mess around with it in a test app, but ... Java, ugh, too old for that.
Yeah, that is the plan... I am working on a restructuring of the app's architecture that will include some low-level network enhancements. Going to have to play around a bit with it, though, as the later versions of Android are pretty aggressive in shutting out wake-locks. I suspect it may be that the time between tries will need to be the minutes if the initial retries don't work. For example, perhaps keep the wake lock for up to 5 seconds of retries, then sleep for 2 minutes, wake up and try again. At some point we have to abandon it as today, though, lest device battery be affected.