I've had my 106 since Feb of this year. Since that time, I've apparently incorrectly assumed that it would only charge the batteries while it was on due to the "timer" that limits how long it would charge. So, I left it plugged in with fully charged batteries. The worst that has happened is it felt warm. But, I have had a battery leak in the past and thought it was due to a bad battery.

Has anyone else noticed this with their 106?

Don't know if anyone ever answered you on this question. The 106 is NOT an intelligent NiMh battery charger. That is, if you have rechargeable batteries in the yellow battery carrier in the radio and then plug it in to an AC adaptor it will pump juice into the batteries whether turned on or off. The timer does absolutely nothing. This is close to the worst thing you can do to these batteries and will ultimately destroy them and could take the scanner with it. Always smart to charge the batteries outside of the scanner in a smart charger made for the battery types you're using.

Rick

Thanks. No one here posted a reply so I went to the Yahoo group where there was a lot of action. It's really too bad it doesn't work well even as a trickle charger as taking the batteries out to charge them is a bit of a pain since I have a case for the scanner.

Yeah, kinda sad but looking at all the stuff electronics wise that's stuffed into this small package it's not surprising. An intelligent battery charger takes a few extra components which I'm sure this unit really doesn't have the real estate for. If you read all the charging disclaimers in the user's manual you get the gist. A way to handle it is use your charged rechargeables in the black holder and then plug in the scanner to your AC adapter. The rechargeables are disconnected, the scanner is on AC and there's no chance of overcharging the batteries. The black battery holder does not connect the adapter to the batteries for charging. When you unplug the scanner it will then go on the rechargeables for portability.

Even following the guidelines in the manual (16 hours for NiMh batteries) you are still probably overcharging them. May not destroy them but almost surely will shorten their life substantially. Too expensive for that.

Rick