I've noticed that the nicad packs tend to have contacts on the side of the
pack, for the drop in charger. Loose nicads or NiMH work, but need a
separate charger.

Yes, AA have two or three times the capacity as AAA cells.

Christopher A. Young
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The AA cells have much higher capacity than the AAA cells. See the
Duracell spec sheets he
http://www.duracell.com/en-US/Global...ets&cc=Primary

You'll also get much longer battery life from a radio that uses a
physical click-on/off switch than one that uses a touch-on/off switch.
The touch switch typically draws a small but continuous crrent from
the batteries

I like the Uniden EcoTrek FRS420 and FRS440 radios that have a
click-on/off switch on the volume control, use three AA cells, and
have a clip that hangs well from a belt loop. After a number of
years, on of the FRS420's has a problem with low audio output, but
I've had them so long I no longer remember when I bought them.

Along the way, I've used Cobra and Midland FRS radios that were
smalller and lighter, but used AAA cells so required more frequent
battery changes. One of them came with rechargeable batteries, but
only their rechargeable batteries could be used with the stad charger
- their batteries were large enough to trip the internal charging
switch, but normal size rechargeables didn't because they are the same
size as standard batteries.