Features:

  • STAY CONNECTED: The BEARCAT 980 SSB CB Radio allows you to stay connected while out on the road and is great for people with a long drive ahead of them
  • LARGE EASY-TO-READ DISPLAY & CHANNEL: Illuminated control panel with 7 color personalized display options for easy use in all lighting conditions. Also features easy-to-read laser etched keys
  • 40 CHANNEL: Full spectrum CB operation & instantly switches to emergency channel 9. Features NOAA weather channels with the push of a button
  • NEW NOISE CANCELLING MICROPHONE: Noise Canceling Mic reduces background noise for crystal clear communication
  • WIRELESS MICROPHONE COMPATABILE: The integrated SWR gives perfect antenna matching. Working with the Uniden BC906W CB Wireless Microphone the Bearcat 980 has become more adaptable
A nearly perfect compromise between a scanner and a CB. I reccomend!

This device is not the perfect scanner, as other reviewers have noted compared to some of the other flagship Uniden scanners this device is limited. This device is the perfect answer to my problem: How to nicely mount and use a scanner, a CB, and a 2m/70cm radio in my Ram 2500. I could get any two mounted, but not three without opening up the dash and mounting equipment on top under the front window. I did not want to do that! In use, the scanner actually quite nice for use while driving; you don't really have time or need to know the precise agency and type of channel. It just works, and just work well. The CB is a full featured CB, lacking only a CB channel scan function to be just about perfect (oh, wait, I wish it had SSB too!) So: If you want the perfect scanner, buy a Uniden BCD536HP (that's the scanner I replaced in my truck) - full featured, full details about what you are listening to, and other features to discover and monitor new channels. If you want a perfect CB, buy a Uniden Bearcat 980 SSB CB (the CB I replaced), with weather, scan, and SSB for a little more range. But - if you want one darn box to mount and both a scanner and a CB in your vehicle, and you are willing to trade some scanner complexity/functionality and some CB functionality for a relatively bulletproof, easy to use bit of kit... get this!

Best SSB CB for the money!

Best SSB CB for the money, easy to set up once you are familiar with all the options. The backlight is a little lacking in direct sunlight even when set all the way, but if you're not messing with all the options while your driving, not a showstopper. One suggestion is to tune your antenna manually before you use the auto-tune feature then once your at an acceptable SWR level complete the auto-tune steps. If you have correctly installed system with quality components, you should see near perfect SWR readings. The 980SSB is a full-size unit and will take up some space wherever you plan to place it, used this in a 2016 Jeep JKU install using a center (navigator side) quick disconnect mount.

As of my review the rev2 board is tuneable but no moddable for expansion (freq wise)

wouldn't 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 didn't 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...

CB/scanner combo. Simple and it works!

I am both a scanner enthusiast and CB user. I do a lot of long-distance driving for pleasure. This unit is perfect for those drives! Turn it in and go. Simple. It works flawlessly. It’s very basic which is what I want for in car use. You can choose from any of the four services to monitor, police, fire, ambulance and DOT. One of transmissions heard one of those forwards will show on the screen. No talkgroup or frequency info. I’m fine with that. If I wanted more detail I could hook up my BCD436HP but with all the distracted driving laws the 885 makes more sense and does the job well. From what I understand it was only supposed to monitor dispatch frequencies/talkgroups but I have also been hearing TAC and TALK as well. It seems to handle encryption pretty well. If it stops unencrypted frequency most of the time it will release within two seconds. Occasionally it will stay on for the entire transmission but that is only happened a couple times. Most of the time it’s 2 seconds or less and it moves on. The audio is crisp and clear and on digital it’s exceptionally great. It’s loud enough that even with road noise you’ll be able to hear it. The GPS unit locks on pretty quickly. The CB side of this combo works great! Good RX and TX. I have no problem following the chatter on the interstate and no problem being heard. The BTW works pretty good too. It can be pretty active in an urban environment but it works. If you want a simple unit for your vehicle that picks up all the action without having to program or edit anything this will fit the bill. IF you want to be able to tweak what you hear (other than being able to select between one or all of police, fire, EMS and DOT) then this is NOT the unit for you. For me, I like the fact that I have been able to keep my 436 with me and not have to keep installing/uninstalling it in the car. Overall I’m very happy with my purchase and can’t wait to take it on a 3000 mike road trip Friday!

A great, feature-packed radio

Uniden's mid-size Bearcat 980 SSB sets a gold standard for modern consumer-grade CB radios. The array of features, such as scan functionality, CB/PA/NOAA Wx, customizable screen colors, on-board diagnostics and single-sideband, are -- in my area, at least -- usually found in much more expensive radios. The 980's most direct consumer-grade competitor might be Cobra's 29. The Cobra has many of these features for a similar price, but lacks the sideband that affords the 980 effectively 80 additional 'channels.' Signals, even at the edge of reception, are incredibly crisp and clear. The sound quality is impressive, if slightly soft in my soft-top Jeep. In my first attempt at raising someone on the radio, I made a contact from my driveway that measured less than a tenth of a mile shy of five miles. The other party reported my signal was strong, loud and clear. (That’s a barefoot radio and the stock mic, pushing out on a four-foot Wilson Silver Load fiberglass antenna.) It's not the fault of the radio per se, but I do have to keep the squelch up a little higher than I’d like to drown out RF interference picked up via the antenna while I'm in town. I'd prefer to keep the squelch almost all the way down and use the RF gain control to dial in signal reception. But, since the 980's RF gain consists of five steps (push-button) rather than a dial, it's a bit more difficult. As a result, the squelch stays up higher, and the RF gain a bit lower (setting 3 out of 5) than I'd like. Out of the box, before any adjustment, my SWRs ranged from 1.0 (Channel 1) to 1.5:1 (Channel 40). I've only two complaints with the 980: First, switching from night to day mode is slightly cumbersome. The CB-only Bearcat 880 employs a simple button to toggle back and forth. With the 980's single-sideband functionality, this is moved into the menu to make room for a clarifier knob. It’s not complicated, but it’s more than I’d like to do when the vehicle is potentially in motion. Second, the plastic used for the volume and fine clarifier knob feel of lesser quality than I'd expect in a radio of this size or price range. They're holding up just fine, but it's a shame that at least one of the controls you're most likely to use should feel inferior. Overall, this radio is a bargain!

Great for travel

This is the perfect radio for my wife and I. The cb is good. We love having the scanner. It is only for hearing police, fire, EMS and dot close to you only those things. You can’t control the freqs you hear, no banks, no freqs show up on screen it only displays fire, police or EMS,, it is a scanner for just turning on and hearing what u hear.. there is no programming.. which is great for us. When you travel all around you do not have you keep programming freqs. Everywhere you go the gps automatically does it for you, so that is great for us. It is just a turn on and hear what u hear close to you scanner.It does cover phase 2 and p25. Also you can use the sd card to update any freqs for free. We love this unit. But like I said if you are looking to listen to anything other than police fire EMS or dot you may wanna look elsewhere. If you do purchase this item , you must first plug the mic in , if you do not have the mic in -the volume and speaker will sound like it is messed up. We love this combo

Great radio for the tinkering hobbyist

EXCELLENT receive audio. I have mine plugged into a hifi speaker that came off the side of a plasma TV, sounds great. I've gotten great audio reports on the TX quality. I'm even pretty happy with the stock mic. The display looks great. The changeable display colors are a lot of fun! Will be great when the radio eventually goes in the truck. You can match the color to the rest of your instruments, or go nuts with some of the wilder colors. ;) The brightness and contrast controls are really slick for setting it up so as not to cause fatigue or distraction. Now, here's a few concerns and criticisms, but for me, it does not sour me on this radio in the least: Mine out of the box does 3W dk. Have not gone inside and turned it up yet, though I plan to. We're allowed 4 Watts, so that’s what I want! All that I've read indicates the adjustment will work out fine. I did, however, do the "beep mod," in which you unsolder one SMD resistor to get rid of the ABSOLUTELY USELESS, ANNOYING, and LOUD BEEP every time you twist a knob or push a button. This radio is annoying as heck, esp. with an external speaker, until this is done. Google for it, the instructions are out there, youtube. This radio does indeed have the Mitsubishi RD16HHF1 Mosfet final, I've confirmed it in mine. I had some concern in reading in forums that these radios blow finals, but once I learned what the part was, I was ok with it as I already have a couple of these parts in my bin. Replacements are a whole $4.75 from RF parts, or 2 for 10 from this guy, without RFparts' minimum order: www.kitsandparts.com/transistors.php I have some ideas in my mind of adding an external heat sink to the back of the radio, I'm not really convinced the final has adequate heat-sinking, just the thin piece of aluminium that makes up the rear panel of the radio. This is a great radio for the tinkering hobbyist, and its the most inexpensive new SSB CB out there.

I own a crane service and I enjoy moving from county to county and seamlessly staying linked ...

I own a crane service and I enjoy moving from county to county and seamlessly staying linked in to each area I am in. Sometimes I'll be in the operator's cab for hours on end (often waiting for product or parts in the middle of the job) I can talk to the TT Unit driver as he's backing up his load without losing my heat or A/C and I can hear what's happening near the town I'm working in that day. Yes, It would be nice to have at least the frequency displayed, but I'll bet that will be on a future upgrade... I also like that in my Jeep Grand Cherokee I was able to remove two bulky items and replace it with just this one unit. There is no ideal place in a GC so I built a tower platform for the previous three. So now I have just this one and my UHF transceiver control head sit's on top. I have now regained view of some of my dash! If Ford made an Explorer Diesel for the States here, I'd have plenty of room on the console, but I'm very happy with this hybrid. Uniden isn't promising us anything that it's not. I haven't experienced the issues in New England that the fellow above did. I think it's pricey, but also think it's a good value. You can't get one anywhere else yet, so this is the opportunity cost in buying the initially released units... I'm very happy to support the product.

Well designed CB

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 won't 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 wasn't 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!

Excellent AM/SSB transceiver...great as a base station

PROS: - Super sensitive receiver - Digital display - PA and speaker outputs (I have a AUX speaker and the fidelity is superb!) - Scan function (can scan LSB, USB, and AM) - SWR and antenna calibration is awesome - Mic gain for adding accessories and cutting down on noise - Microphone clarity is very clear - RF gain "Local" button is spectacular for knocking down DX noise - Display color changes CONS - Annoying "beep" on every button (there is a video on You Tube to remove a small chip and this loud beep will go away)I did the mod and the beep is about 98% gone...barely audible. Easy. - Weather station call up seems to be a tad on the weak side OVERALL - Been working with CBs since 1975 and I can say this one is by far my favorite. In fact, I am using it solely for my base station with a small 12v battery and Battery Tender charger (works awesome!). I am running a Firestik II (4') on top of my chimney about 30' up and I can pick up DX on skip and local traffic with ease. I live about 1 mile from the interstate and I can pick up chatter crystal clear. - ANL/NB seems to be a little weak, but does cut down on noise

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