A wireless communication mobile station (MS or UE) evaluates and categorizes an expected effectiveness of base stations (BSs or Node-Bs) in its Active Set for receiving uplink data, and instructs at least the less effective BSs to suppress some or all acknowledgment signals with respect to particular uplink data packets from the UE. A Target Select message is described for notifying the BSs of their Acknowledgment Target Select category, and a Target Select channel is described for conveying the Target Select message to all Active Set BSs so that they can suppress acknowledgment signaling with respect to corresponding data packets as appropriate for their Acknowledgment Target Select category.