the battery life is sad!
NiCd probably? They degrade over time, suffer from memory effect and all sorts of other things. They were relatively easy and cheap to get replaced (new ones were soldered in place of the old ones) but I don't know if that's still allowed.
AFAIK the sale of NiCd is forbidden now in the EU.
My Bearcat has NiCd batteries too and the battery life is approaching 10 seconds on a good day.