I was looking at batteries from RadicalRC, so I imagine that the bonding should be fine; they're rated for aircraft use.

I have a voltwatch built into my plane, so I plan on checking batteries every flight, too. I'm just surprised at how fast both the Tx and Rx batteries lose their charge, but then again, they are only 600mah. I have a small car, and also like to consolidate, so getting new Tx and Rx batteries w/ more capacity just seems to make sense.

But what about switching from AA => subC? And Nicd to Nimh? Does that matter?