I have learned to mistrust the ham manufacturer's battery packs over the years. They just don't use very good quality cells inside, whatever the technology. And they charge an awful lot to buy their custom-fitting short-lived packs. So I would say, if you can, try to get a radio that has an accessory form-fitting pack that can take AAs, for use as a backup (or even regularly, but with less power output).
The problem I'm having is being able to buy a radio wihout the Lithium Ion pack. All the ones I find they come with the pask then you have to buy the AA pack seperate so I'me paying for a soon to be useless Lithium Ion pack that I don't want or need.
What I want if the ham equivalent of
this. I have one of these I bought used for $40. The battery pack slides off and then pops open to hold 6 AA's. Then I bought two more packs which were designed to hold 8 AA NiCad's and filled them with Sanyo Eneloop NiMH and it works fine. So I have one pack to use while the other is charging and I can use the NiCad trickle circuitry built into the packs if needed or pull the AA's out and plug them in a good charger. Used it a few weekends ago when I met a friend in a state forest. We were past cell phone service so I handed him that handheld CB so we could talk back and forth as we drove around trying to find the shooting range.
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