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Review on πŸ“» Uniden BEARCAT 980: 40-Channel SSB CB Radio with Sideband NOAA WeatherBand and Wireless Mic Compatibility by Robert Tirona

Revainrating 5 out of 5

CB/scanner combo. Simple and it works!

I am both a scanner enthusiast and a CB user. I travel a lot for long distances for pleasure. This device is ideal for such drives! Turn it on and go. Easy. It works perfectly. It's very basic and that's what I want for in-car use. You can choose from four surveillance services: Police, Fire, Ambulance, and DOT. One of the transmissions heard from one of these attackers appears on the screen. No talkgroup or frequency information. I'm happy with that. If I wanted more detail I could hook up my BCD436HP, but with all the driving laws distracted the 885 makes more sense and does the job well. My understanding is that it was only meant to control broadcast frequencies/talkgroups, but I've heard TAC and TALK as well. It seems to do a pretty good job of encrypting. If it stops the unscrambled frequency most of the time, it will be released within two seconds. Sometimes it stays on throughout the transfer, but that only happened a couple of times. Most of the time it's 2 seconds or less and it goes on. Audio is crisp and clear, and digitally it's exceptionally good. It's loud enough to be heard even with street noise. The GPS device turns on fairly quickly. The CB side of this combo works great! Good RX and TX. I have no problem following the chatter on the freeway and have no problem being heard. BTW works fine too. He can be quite active in an urban setting, but it works. If you are looking for a simple device for your car that can do everything without having to program or edit anything, this is for you. IF you want to be able to customize what you hear (other than being able to choose between any or all Police, Fire, EMS and DOT features) then this is NOT the device for you. As for me, I like the fact that I can keep my 436 with me and not have to constantly install/uninstall it in the car. Overall I'm very happy with my purchase and can't wait to take it on my 3000 Mike journey on Friday!

Pros
  • Excellent overall performance
Cons
  • Good but not great