Almost all hts now have li-ion batteries. They mention that they should be discharged and recharged from time to time. I don’t use my hts on a daily basis and have too many floating around I would have to rotate thru. What is the best way to discharge them without having to tx into nothingness? I thought about leaving them on a noaa station at a low volume setting for a few hours at a time each. Is there a better option? Do other ppl have this problem?

If you have Wouxun radios, they'll self-discharge in a week or two.  

You could just leave the radio powered on, squelch off, volume low.  That will drain it faster than letting it sit squelched, and if you put it in another room, you can peek in once in a while and listen for static.  Or keep it tuned to the local NOAA WX freq.

Aint that the truth. KGUV8D will kill a battery in about 3 weeks or so. Thats why i dont keep it in my Get home bag anymore

To my knowledge there is no benefit to power cycling a lithium-ion battery. Power cycling was from the Ni-Cd battery era.

Last I knew, the theory was that for long term storage, the chemistry is most stable when the battery is at 50 to 75 percent charge. Although what is most important is that the battery not be deeply discharged, so always better to err on the side of more charge than less.

All of the above is correct. Full charge is bad because it results in the battery chemistry being more reactive so the cells age faster. They're also more susceptical to the burst-into-flames failure mode when stored at 100%.

The target levels for storage vary, but the industry concensus seems to be about 40% is ideal, though I think many target 50% because it's easier to do
the math and leaves some room for minor self discharge.

While the thread is still recent, another question. Would there be a downside of leaving the radio in the charging cradle? Would it kill battery life if you left it in there for a week? Month? Indefinitely? I’ve seen businesses leave them in there forever seems like. I have charged mine and forgot to get them out for about a week(charged in a room not used much)

In theory, it should be ok.

In practice, it often isn't.

All of the main battery chemistries (Lithium ion in this case, but also NiMH and NiCD) prefer long, high-current charges. This keeps the electrodes nice and porous with a larger surface area. Having a battery that's constantly getting topped off and getting charged from 95-99% to 100% usually means slower, low-current charges (this is highly dependent on charger design and unfortunately great charging circuits are rare.)

Additionally, with Lithium chemistries, they're more reactive near a full charge and the battery ages faster, and leaving it on the charger means you're guaranteed to be in the worst possible charge state for long-term storage.

Your best bet if you don't use the radio often is to charge it, run it down to 50% or so and then pull out the battery pack.