Besides my personal 189, we have one here at work that is used in the RF Lab daily. I inquired as to it's history of battery life, the main user says he thinks it typically lasts over one year. We have not however done an inspection of this one yet . I'm a bit confused on the exact purpose of the SuperCap. Does it's usefullness only come into play during battery swaps, when there is no other voltage present to maintain the memories? Mine is without one now, but if I just power off, and back on, it still seem to retain memory.