is this radio ancient ?

[Buzzweiser]

You can use a standard 9volt battery to back up your memory on those units. Just get a plug end for it and tie in the red and black wires you see there on the back. A 9 volt will last about a month with no power supplied to the unit. Those were great little units back in the day. They had really great receive. I used the earlier version of one up until just a few years ago to keep tabs on the 2m/440 skywarn and marine frequencies when up at the lake. One day it just stopped receiving. I think the model you have there has a bit more coverage than the version I had but I don't remember exactly what.