Yaesu Original FBA-39 AA Battery Case (Fits 3 x AA Batteries *AA Batteries Not Included) for VX-8R Series - Includes: Belt Clip and Screws

Well designed, well built, water resistant. perfect for emergency situations.

This works, but shouldnt be your primary method. In this mode, you will be transmitting at 1 watt max with the VX-8R. That should reach your local repeater, but you may be scratchy into it. Its primary use should be sitting in your ARES Go-Kit for a just in case scenario.

I thought that it would make the radio (FD2DR) significantly wider compared to the normal rechargeable battery, but they are almost the same size. It secures to the radio just as well as the normal battery does, and works as advertized. The radio (well atleast on mine) gives you a battery power level read off on the screen the same as it does with the normal battery.

These will work great for ham radio for backpacking and bug out needs

Typical Yaesu quality. As another reviewer mentioned, it does appear to be at least water resistant, so you dont lost that feature of the radio just because you ran out of Lithium battery packs. Itd be a sad state of affairs to be transmitting at a whopping 0.8 watts (as is the case of the FT1XD when running on this battery pack) but for monitoring, short range simplex, or strong repeater work, itd most definitely do the job when your 2200mAh packs run out. I almost didnt get one for this radio (the FT1XD wasnt cheap, nor were the plethora of other accessories I had already added to it) but being the only radio without a AA pack, it was nagging at me. Better to have and not need...