Hi -
I have a futaba radio and receiver and they both have the batteries they come with from factory. what is the right battery maintenance? how long do these batteries last.

is there anything else I should buy to keep my batteries running properly? conditioner, discharger...etc

You can get a battery cycler, however most Futaba radios have a diode installed in the transmitter that means you need to remove the battery to cycle it. If it is a newer radio and you are not using it right now, just plug it it for a night once a month. Good Luck, Dave

When I get ready to use mine I charge them up. Otherwise I leave them alone.

Same here. I use a peak charger instead of the stock wall wart. I charge up my radios the night before I'm going to fly. Usually set the charger to about 300mA charge rate (~ a 1/6 C rate for most of my TX batt packs).

These batteries are pretty resiliant. I got an old JR given to me that had a battery that was so dead it wouldn't register with my nice charger. After a couple overnight charges and uses from just setting up a plane with it, it was back to good useable condition.

those are good batteries. I have been using my Futaba TX battery for 2 years now. I'm using a Triton2 to charge and cycle it. If charge them slow and cycle once a month u can keep on using them for a long time.

I use mostly higher capacity NiMh batteries. I think the smallest I have is a 1400 mah.

They do not have the memory problems of the older NiCds

ok so what you are saying is that I should get the 6volt battery with 1400mah or more? right?

what's a good place to get them at a good price?

This is the last one I bought

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXNHS4&P=ML

Mr nicad or batteries america is another place I get them

Here are a few sources for some reliable battery info.
http://www.rcbatteryclinic.com
http://www.whenshtf.com/showthread.php?t=2153
http://www.srbatteries.com/nimh.htm
http://dansdata.com/gz011.htm

There is an excellent three part series of articles about batteries on the AMA / Sport Aviator site.
Go to http://www.masportaviator.com/ah.asp?CatID=2&ID=146