I have been running my 396XT for 2 and a half years 24/7 with the backlight on even, and have not seen any degradation whatsoever. I sometimes search a range of frequencies, and other times scan maybe 1-2 K of freqs, depending on certian things. It shouldn't make a difference what you are actually scanning. I thought by now my LED backlight would have dimmed but it has not. I record and log frequencies on that one and have another 396XT for normal use.