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

I purchased the Uniden Bearcat 980SSB radio about a week ago and have had some mixed results after 24 hours or so of operation over the period of the week since then. The serial number on this unit is X000CIQY01 and the unit looks brand new, not refurbed or rebuilt. The radio is a real sharp looking piece of equipment, the controls and buttons have a good feel, and the price is good for being both an AM and SSB radio. Sound is good and mostly the radio can hear and talk as good as any CB or ham radio I have owned. I dont have any calibrated test gear but I believe it meets its published specifications. How-some-ever, the operation and display to have some curious faults. The RF control doesnt exist in the sense that the operators manual describes. The RF control is described in operation in two different ways in the operators manual, one way on page E-5 and another way on page E-10. The button depresses on the RF gain and a small indicator lights up with the indication of LOCAL, comeing on in the upper left hand corner of the display section of the front panel. This indicator isnt mentioned in the manual. There is no corresponding LED coming on and variability using the Channel Selector Switch as the manual describes for the RF control, rather its just a sort of On and Off with the RF gain at maximum all the time when not in LOCAL. The AGC circuit in the radio seems to work well though and the radio is very sensitive on receive. The display has 7 colors you can select which is real fine if you have time to play with this while driving, which would have about the same result as texting while driving, probably resulting in a bad car wreck. First and foremost, you cant see the indicators in the daytime. Any ambient sunlight washes out the display and you will be lucky to see the channel you are on with the settings on high brightness and maximum contrast. I like the Green setting but in fact I dont really care. I was using a PRO505 before and it had Yellow I think and was very readable in daylight. The display is dazzling at night and maybe I should mount two of these radios, one under each front wheel well of my car, for extra bling. I havent been able to get the scan to work yet, so perhaps it really does, but I will work on that with the car parked this weekend. All of this sort of leads up to the final problem which is the method in which the operator gets to most of the settings. The MENU/OK and SELECTOR knob combined with the other assorted buttons and contortions make this a pain-in-the-butt radio to set up. I suspect some young software guy who doesnt operate mobile CB, did the semi-demi-drop-down menu for this radio. Who else but a nerd-bird would think that pressing the PTT while the function button for MIC GAIN was activated for 5 seconds after pressing, and you are scrambling to run the SELECTOR knob to the desired MIC GAIN setting, would be a cool thing to do? So overall I would again say its a good radio but Uniden messed up on this one when they rushed it to market. I have read a few reviews and it is total microcomputer controlled and no schematics or service manual are available. You cant fix it and you cant mess with it, so Uniden has you by the proverbial (fill in as appropriate). Therefore I am thinking of removing the 980SSB from the car just as soon as the Galaxy 959 AM/SSB unit arrives. I will use the 980SSB as a base station rig. Probably will never take the top off until one day the microprocessor goes nuts and then just to look at all those surface mount parts. I design microprocessor driven systems plus a lot of homebrew RF, so this aint my first rodeo.

The CB radio itself has been fantastic. Works very well plowing snow on the Interstate. Up until this year 2023, everything has been working just swell. About two weeks ago, a coworker buddy of mine had his radio start to give him fits. It wouldnt key out. After some troubleshooting, it was determined that the key out button linkage to the electrical switch inside the microphone has a manufacturers defect. A piece of plastic wore and one part the was supposed to engage another part slipped under the linkage instead of pushing on it. Then, other pivot parts, all plastic, were found to be sheared off inside. Microphone was never subjected to abuse, just use, and it died. Now my microphone is exhibiting the same symptoms. It is starting to not key out consistently when the button is pressed. Sometimes it keys out, sometimes it doesnt. Nothing more frustrating than trying to discuss a lane transition plan with a plowing partner and they keep asking can you hear me and you hear them fine, but the stupid microphone will not key out. Buyer be warned. They arent cheap to buy either. I mean sure, Uniden could offer me a replacement...but why bother, unless they have identified and corrected a defect, youll likely just be in an important use scenario and the microphone just gives up on you. Sad. So sink of manufacturers making crap products, or crap components. You put your name on this thing Uniden...you own this. Good job in design and quality control. Astatic replacment on order.

wouldnt hesitate to buy another one. At the current time non mod able, BUT!! htast fine. As a basic am/ssb cb radio its a good one. Has great recieve like an old uniden grant or cobra148gtl. Good single final radio. DOes the 12 to 15 watts PeP on ssb out of the box and deadkey 5 and 8 to 10 on AM out of the box. Mine was a rev2 board. Power is adjustable to a point but honestly as a stock radio its fine as is. Some folks said they were junk because they were not like export type radio out put. Not everyone is looking for a 50 to 75 watt radio. Excellent as a base station, and works great in the mobile, ANL/NB that works....good tone . decent audio with stock mic. I didnt have the bluetooth mic that you can get. My review is of the stock out of the box unit. The board is surface mount parts but looks to be able to take a bit of a beating if in a big truck or in heavy equipment. I have installed 2 of these in stock form in big trucks and had one for my self at home. If you can find a good deal grab one if your a daily talker on the radio...

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Overall a good radio in all honesty, especially for the price. On SSB, they do not tend to drift. Ive enjoyed two of these things. However, Ill get down to some cons... Do not, under and circumstance, clean the screen with anything other than a microfiber cloth. These screens scratch VERY easily. In a mobile truck application where things get a film of dust on them, good luck.... Next Ill point out the screen backlighting is not quite bright enough for sun contact in a mobile. Warning you on that as well. Lastly, my oldest one Ive owned has developed an issue to not turn on when I turn the power knob. All I get is a screen flicker, or a flash, then back out again. It at times takes multiple tries before I get it going. Its like a pull start motor....sometimes difficult to get the thing going but once going it has NO issues when it is going. Strange. My oldest unit is only 1yr, 5mo old.

Love this CB it easy to use. Has noise cancelation. Your voice is very clear when talking. Love the weather chanels it picks up in every state im in and the areas around me so I know ahead. Nice display on the front and one touch to change channels

I was pleased with the overall quality and operation of the radio. I have not experienced the weather alerts nor used the SSB operation. The one problem I had was the screws provided to hold the microphone to the side of the radio did not match the holes in the radio. They were too small or too large depending on which set was chosen. I close to tap the holes in the radio and use machine screws from my shop. This will not matter if you plan to mount the microphone holder on some other surface. Just drill holes to match one of the two screw sizes provides and you will be fine.

Uniden makes good radios these days. I worked for Radio Shack in the 70s and In the 1970s youd find these at your local McCrorys or FW Woolworths and other retail outlets. Though it was originally sort of a low-end near Kraco and Midland. Uniden (and Midland) has changed its style and operating procedures and moved up a lot. Plusses. Uniden gives you an adapter cable so you can use other brand manufactured microphones with this radio. That puts a touch of humanity in their brand. I like that. Its a well-thought out and diplomatic gesture that endears me now to their brand. It comes with a decent manual that explains all of your features. Kind of important because there are few knobs, more buttons and its a much more complex apparatus than what you found in the 70s - 2000s. Its light, relatively compact for a full bore SSB radio. The radio is strict in its power limits. There is no fudging this radio but a really great mike paired with it will give you some additional performance. I took this on the open road and got some great distance with the same K-30 I tuned using a Cobra HH RoadTrip. It came in handy during a 20 mile long traffic jam, and proved itself to be a skip radio as well. I didnt intend to go hunting for skip on the road but the receiver is incredibly good! I managed to converse with a guy 30 miles away as if he were next door to me. Another guy about 120 miles away was easily reached and heard. For a radio with strict technical limits, this radio reaches out and grabs them. I might add I just used the stock mike that came with it. No screaming, whistling or any drama on my part. Power wise it puts out 4 watts on deadkey. You can maybe peak it out maybe 6 or 7 AM if youre loud. Im not loud so I didnt see that kind of performance. Triple that on sideband about 12 watts output give or take. Its intended to perform as a stock radio so its within strict power limits that are not really going to budge except by use of an amped up mike on AM. Minusses. Its till big. I had to leave it on my car seat. Its made for underdash mounting so the speakers on the bottom (as with most radios), and so an external wouldve been better than reading everything upside down. The digital metering is quirky. Its supposed to measure RF/Signal Strength and SWR but I found that the onboards did not agree with the SWR/Signal Strength and Watt meter I picked up at Ham Radio Outlet. The weather channels stock out of the box are all squelched so unless youre close you may not pick them up. I dont know how to unsquelch them, yet. So there you have it. I have to figure that one out as the manual doesnt explain this phenomena. As a stock bargain priced SSB its worth the money. It performs as good as models that cost twice as much so at the price at about $120 give or take, its a good deal. Performance is mediocre compared to some of the models out there that likely will outperform this unit. However, you get what you pay for! It suits me for the road but just doesnt fit anywhere in my car! So itll end up a base station as soon as I home brew an antenna for it.

This new Uniden CB is amazing, the reception is so much better than the old ones from the 80s I got from Goodwill and the sound so much clearer I can hardly believe it. It will pickup stations on almost every channel and the sound is clear so I can actually understand what some of the folks on there are saying now. Besides SSB and weather band it has lots of extra features like a built in SWR meter and a voltmeter to display the power supply/ battery voltage. Even though it receives good, when I pressed the transmit key on the mic and talked into it nothing happened! The meter showed that it was transmitting full power but I didnt hear anything. Even though most CB mics have a 4 pin plug this one uses an odd ball 6 pin plug but they included an adapter so you can use another mic. I tired a different mic and it worked so I took the mic apart and the wiring seemed to be OK but I found a piece of white plastic stuck over the hole in the front that was keeping sound out. When I peeled that off it worked just fine. There is a black fiber piece stuck over the hole and the white plastic piece. Take off the white plastic piece, throw it away and put the mic back together and it will work much better. Also, when using the WX receiver it would only play one strong channel and the others were quiet even though I know there are more channels. The problem turned out to be the Squelch control for WX on the PC board being turned up too far. If you remove the bottom cover and look at the PC board there is a square metal box near the center with a lot of solder on it. Just to the right of it is a tiny trim pot called RT500 labeled Wx Sq. There is a special tool thats used to adjust it but a tiny Philips screwdriver will work too. If you look closely there is a center point on it that will be set point down at about the 5:00 position. It needs to be turned clockwise to the 6:00 position or about 20 degrees to turn down the Squelch in order to get weaker stations. Its not critical and if you turn it too far it wont hurt anything, you will just get noise on the channels that dont have a station. BTW, dont buy the used ones. While it looks like a good deal to get an open box item at a lower price they are bad ones that were broken by the first buyer then returned which is what you will get since Amazon doesnt test them.

I am impressed with my radio out of the box. There are a couple things I am not fond of however. The color and display brightness is almost a deal breaker. Mine is mounted in a semi w/sleeper and damn near dark all day and still barely visible. If I had this in a sedan or day cab/pick up I would have to return it. Major fail on uniden part. But I have made it work in my situation. The RF gain being a digital 1-5 seems to lack fine tuning. And the squelch is almost turned 3/4 up to hit clear. I have used it both ways RF on 5 squelch turned up and squelch turned off and RF to 2 or 3 and she works fine out of the box. But neither adjustment seems to have a sweet spot. Could be my experience. Now both are small potatoes to how good the radio really is. It is a shame about the dim panel display cause this radio gets out and and hears great. I do plan on removing the rubber device in the mic(or replacing it) then tuning the radio but otherwise I will leave her stock. I had an old old hand me down cobra 29 that would have a gremlin here and there (for what it was though I loved it) and a brand new galaxy 949 that spent its life being returned, repaired, repaired.... Not a fan. So I tried a old friend from my youth and I am happy I did.