Shortly after I received the radios above I learned that BaoFeng also made a AAA battery holder for disposable batteries. Thinking it would be a neat thing to have as a backup and in the interest of learning more I ordered one. It arrived in two days (yesterday) and I got busy trying it.
It's not a total piece of crap but it is not very well made or easy to use. First off, no instructions on how to use it other than a warning about the batteries (to be covered later) so I had to gingerly figure out how to open it. The whole unit is the same size as the rechargeable pack. I finally got the back plate off and it is set up like most other disposable battery holders with three rows to hold two batteries each.
Now comes the fun part where you need three hands. The batteries fit into the rows but as soon as you stop holding them they pop out (see the picture). They will not stay in place, you have to put some in then hold them down as you place the others in their rows. And then carefully place the backplate over the batteries to hold them in place in the radio. It took me maybe 10 minutes to master this skill. It then took me about 5 minutes to coax the package into the back of the radio.
Also, it comes with a dummy battery which you need to use with 5 alkaline batteries. This is where the attached note comes in. I'll let you read it for yourselves and try to figure out why. It does work, I was able to test them, the unit sends and receives like this.
Overall it does provide a useful backup if your rechargeable battery dies. But it's not up to the manufacturing standards of most other battery packs I have used.
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