[Milsurplus] Russian Batteries

[Ray Fantini]

Was getting some stuff ready for Dayton this year for the 51.0 FM Cold War's net and was thinking of running my Russian R-107 again. Been about three or four years without using it and now wondering what if anything I can do about the batteries. This radio like many of the Soviet era radios uses four Nickel Metal Hydride or Nickel Iron metal wet cell or whatever they are batteries to provide +2.5 and -2.5 to power the solid state inverter that develops all the voltages to run the radio. Think they may be a type KNH-20/ KNP-20 or something like that. The closest American equal would be the old wet cell type Nickel Cadmium batteries that were used in some pack sets in the sixties or possibly the same style Ni-Cad wet cell that's used in aviation. Because the Soviet era wet cells are a nasty, leaky mess I store the batteries separated from the radio in plastic containers out in the garage. The four cells that I had and was using were not that great to begin with and after sitting outside in the cold and discharged don't have a lot of faith that they will come up but will take them out and clean them up and try charging tonight but wanted to know if anyone had any experience with flushing and replacing whatever the liquid was in the cells or any other ideas on how to bring them back to life? Or if anyone knows of a source for replacement cells or has had any experience building replacement packs?  It's important to know that I am talking about the older R-107 and not the newer R-107T, the 107T is a all solid state radio and will work from a five or six volt power source well but the old 107 uses a solid state inverter and tubes and requires a split power source so a six volt gel cell is no good.
Ray F