Uniden BEARCAT 980 40- Channel SSB CB Radio with Sideband NOAA WeatherBand,7- Color Digital Display PA/CB Switch and Noise Cancelling Mic, Wireless Mic Compatible

WOKS GOOD LIKE THE FEATCHERS .

I absolutely love this radio. All the features and accessibility make this the best Ive owned so far. I was skeptical at first due to some of the negative reviews on Amazon, but after playing with it all day today, Im glad I bought it. It can be peaked and tuned though its set perfect out of the box. Doesnt drift at all and the internal diagnostics is a plus though Im not sure how accurate it is. I purchased this as a replacement from a burned up unit, so I thought. Old one wouldnt transmit and it was very old. Plugged in my new, cheaper antenna to this one and the diagnostic test failed the antenna. Actually metered it finally and sure enough my antenna is bad. So I threw away my old unit for nothing Im sure. Albeit aside, Im more than happy with the clarity out of this one and is a huge upgrade from what I had. Weather bands sound great. Memory scan and full channel scan as well as side band are great features. Can fine tune everything quite easily. I watched a single YouTube video about this radio and thats all I needed. No need to break out the manual for this unit. Once you get the idea, its very simple to navigate through all the features. I put this one in my 2014 Silverado z71 right in the center console. Easy power access and ability to hide all the wires. Looks like it belongs. Highly recommend this unit for new or seasoned operators. Just make sure you dont skimp on the antenna. Ill be buying another Firestick and mounting opposite my radio antenna on the hood. I would also recommend not getting a roof mount antenna for this unit. From other reviews, the cb will fail the diagnostics test. Get a good center load and ground it properly and make sure its tuned right. Order a Firestix antenna as well Walcott radio has the best prices.

The display is a black background with illuminated lettering. Most displays are background lit and black lettering. Very easy to read in full sunlight and great in night time use. It wont blind you at night! Weather alert works and SSB and AM are clear and sharp. I like that you can simply push a button for the PA. I did not that while in PA mode, if there wasnt anything being received over the CB, it acted like a PA. But, if you received a broadcast while in PA mode, it would go out the PA speaker also. Mic feels good in the hand and feels like it is well made. The radio seemed to meet the FCC specs properly. A very nice mobile CB/SSB!

Im a trucck driver and really liked this radio untill the display screen started fading out. Did some research and found this is a common known problem. All functions depend on the display to operate. Shop wants 90 dollars to replace the screen. I cannot recommend this radio for the overall price you will pay.

I like the sideband, but dont like that the course and fine tune you cant see what frequency it is tuned to. I like the sound quality is great and other people say i sound great. I dont like that I had to buy a external SWR meater to get a accurate SWR reeding . I give this radio a 4.

Absolutely awesome CB in concept, but poor in execution. Its like they took a list of everything a CBer would want and handed it to engineers who know nothing about CBs. The good: * Solid SSB. No drifting due to temperature changes. * Great audio. Everyone says I sound perfect. * WX works well. * Numerous colors for display. * Built in SWR meter. * PA feature (non-amplified) The bad (and there is a lot of it): * The annoying beeps everyone talks about. What were they thinking? * You will have to buy an external speaker. Stock speaker is absolutely useless in even moderate wind/road noise. Pathetic 2.5 and 16 ohms. Even for an indoor base station this barely adequate at best. * Display is just as bad as the speaker. Even at night it is too dim and disappears when looked at from the slightest angle. Daytime viewing is absolutely unacceptable. Why this was allowed to be built this way is beyond me unless Uniden just didnt give a damn whatsoever. * QC is just as bad as the speaker and display. Out of the three units Ive owned, one had the display stop lighting after six months of extremely light use (as pictured). Then the AM/WX decided to stop working after six more months of sitting in storage. The annoying beeps still work just fine, though. * The second unit I had would not transmit beyond 1/4 mile from a rooftop base station antenna. Many buyers report the unit not putting out full power, even TXing as low as 2 watts. * Noise filtering is hit and miss on each unit. My two units that broke had good noise filtering. The one I have that still works picks up alternator whine which can only be drowned out with the squelch knob. These were all tested on the same vehicle. * Hardware is locked tight and can not be expanded for extra channels. * Unidens warranty is only one year and they make the customer pay return shipping for their lousy products that should have never left the factory in the first place. * (On a side note, this model disappeared from Amazons listings for about a year. I strongly suspect it was due to the large amount of returns they got.) If you have the extra money, look elsewhere. This model had great potential but its drawbacks are just not worth the headaches.

UPDATED REVIEW: I picked mine in September 2014. My initial review gave 5 stars, but my Bearcat 980 stopped transmitting after 6 1/2 months. Ive used CB radios for close to 40 years, so Im pretty familiar with whats out there. I take good care of mine. My closet has a small warehouse of about 30 different CB radios accumulated over time and put to use in various applications - mostly camping and boating. An additional CB radio was not needed, but I got too good a deal to pass this one up...or so I thought. The Uniden Bearcat 980 SSB mobile has an amazing number of features. The built in SWR meter and mic gain alone will save you $100.00 in additional components that you otherwise would have to buy. The best part is that they really work! I tweaked the mic gain adjustment and regularly got compliments on the audio quality of my transmission using just the stock microphone. Theres no need for an amplified mic. Other features include talk back, SWR warning, PA, RF gain, scan, weather channels, bright/dim control, color selection for your read outs, noise limiter/noise blanker, diagnostics (voltage in and RF out), etc. It has so many features, Im was reluctant to use it in the car. Id be so busy playing with all of the features that I could easily take my eyes off the road. Its short life span was spent exclusively as a base. On the down side, the radio only put out 3 watts instead of the legal limit of 4 watts on AM. Similarly, it put out about 10.6 watts instead of the allowable 12 in SSB mode. The below-specs output seems to be a common problem with new radios. On the other hand, the tolerances on this unit were great. It was consistently right on frequency. Other high profile manufacturers have problems with their radios drifting off frequency. Not Uniden. In the big picture, I was willing to live with the 3 watt output and enjoy everything else this unit did right. Unfortunately, my Bearcat 980 died an early death. It stopped transmitting after 6 1/2 months. Uniden requires that warranty repair be initiated by the seller. My seller ignored my requests and simply did not respond. Amazon stepped up to the plate and refunded me my money with no non-sense. Amazon is now selling these for $105.00. That would be a steal for a single side band radio, but I have seen too many reports on various radio websites about Uniden Bearcat 980 failures. Considering the reliability issues that are coming to light, Im going to pass on replacing this one - even at the bargain price Amazon is now offering them at. I now using a 23 year old Cobra 148GTL in the spot where I previously had the Uniden Bearcat 980. The 148 GTL sits next to a 34 year old Realistic Navaho TRC 490 SSB base. My Uniden Bearcat 980 experience confirms for me that they dont make CB radios like they used to.

This CB works quite well. It receives signals better than I thought it would, and seems to be putting out a decent amount of wattage with a variety of antennas. a Cobra unit had outrput problems, so I had to send back...twice. It has a load of features, including weather and SSB, which I have yet to use. The only complain I have is that the readout is a bit dim to be seen in daylight, no matter what color you put it on. Too bad as it has a nice look t it at night. I was also able to figure out a way to mount it in a 2014 F150.

Radio functions OK. The radio needed a power microphone for use on SSB as modulation level is low. The stock mic would only drive the SSB transmitter up to a few watts. Things not seen in the instructions... To use the channel scanner, You must first turn the squelch up. The scanner will not start if there is any noise coming from the speaker. The RF gain is adjustable if the RF gain button is held down and the channel knob is turned. Numbers appear on the face as the knob is turned indicating the RF gain level. After 9 months had trouble with the radio not turning on. Switch would have to be clicked on and off repeatedly for the radio to come on. Took the bottom cover off and sprayed DeOxit into a small crevice on the closed up rectangular volume control. Found a small metal tab on the side of the volume control that was touching a rectangular pad on the daughterboard for the face but not soldered to it. Soldered it on. After having an external speaker plugged in for 9 months found the internal speaker no longer works. Think the speaker plug contacts are not springing back properly. Left that as it was and plugged the internal speaker back in. Radio turns on OK now, still using it.

Great radio, weather is clear and really pulls the signal in. SSB works very well also(made a 15mile contact first time out). I would have given it a five star if the readout was brighter/less glare. The screen or polished face plate has a glass like finish and reflects something awful during the day making it almost impossible to view the screen without moving your head around to cut out the glare/reflection. Otherwise a great radio.