WorldwideDX Amateur Radio Forums

Issues

So far, I've uncovered two issues with this radio during my testing:

1. When the squelch is turned all the way up to mute the incoming signal, there is still a low level white noise that is quite audible. It's not that noticeable in a mobile environment, however it's very obvious with an external speaker in a base station setup. It's actually a little annoying. This is a fairly minor issue, but I've never encountered a radio that exhibited this exact squelch behavior.

2. The second issue is a more serious one. In my mobile, I use a powered external Texas Ranger speaker. I use this speaker because the radio is very difficult to hear with the top off. When I use a powered speaker with the 680, I encounter what most people would call talk back....except the radio isn't supposed to have talk back. I don't hear the same thing when I plug in an unpowered external speaker. In my jeep, the "talk back" is quite loud and there is no way to get rid of it.

This has actually been a problem with certain Uniden CBs in the past; I had the same issue with a Uniden 520. With the 520, the feedback from the external speaker was so loud that I was unable to use a powered mic because it resulted in serious squeal. On that radio, I actually added a relay in the radio that would disengage the external speaker upon mic key to solve the problem. Doing something like that on this new radio might not be such a bad idea.

Hopefully the folks from Uniden will see this and can address both of these issues in a future update to the radio.

Ahhh Surface mount technology. No modulation pot.power pot. Guessing it will be set from the factory. Cant wait to see the 980. Would really look nice in my 2012 Sedona. Keep us posted UPman!!!!

__________________
Mobile:
Prez Grant Export/Stock Mic
Black Widow 350V
Two 9" Predator 10K
RS SWR/Watt Meter

Base:
P/T COBRA 146GTL(Spare)
President Jackson
Turner +3 Hand Mic
Pyramid 25 Amp P.S.
Home Made Ground Plane Base ant.

buying two then?

Mobile Review Update

I've been using the radio around town on the various freeways for several weeks now. My overall impressions of this radio are that it makes a very fine AM mobile. The large display is fantastic, and the radio has enough volume that I really don't need a powered external speaker (my Jeep is very noisy). The NB/ANL works good. I find that the LO RF gain preset actually work nicely to help limit the DX stations when you want, and the DX button is nice for when you want to hear everything.

For a basic AM only radio, I really like this in my Jeep. I think this would probably be my new recommendation for anyone with a similar application to my own. However the feedback problem with the powered speaker is a real problem. I can't turn the volume up very loud and then transmit or I get feedback & squeal. I hope Uniden can figure out a solution to this problem. For reference, I've had many other CB radios in this exact location with the same speaker and have only ever had this problem with Uniden radios.