Ron, the '8' series is in new cases. They've put the '0' where you'd expect to
find it. Many of the features are gone. Looked at the circuit board with a
friend and it looks like the uv-5r board. The uv-8l says its got an extended
life battery but opening the battery you find exactly the same number and type
of cells as in other batteries but the battery case does have a different label
on it. I'd just hang on to any '5' series you've got.
Tom
Tom Brennan KD5VIJ, CCC-A/SLP
web page http://titan.sfasu.edu/~g_brennantg/sonicpage.html