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How are the new Bearcat 980 radios now?

Alan Blackmon

Alan Blackmon

Well-Known Member
Apr 11, 2017
235
335
73
73
Boise Idaho
I had an older 980 that I used for awhile. I decided to buy a newer one and had all sorts of trouble from it. LEDs faded after it had been on awhile. I read reviews that this was a problem with a batch of them for awhile. I returned it. I still have an older one but it has developed a problem with the internal speaker I am going to investigate. Meanwhile I see at a local truck stop Uniden is having a sale on the 980 are they still having troubles with the front panel LEDs? I will be doing a search for recent reviews but thought I would check in here for some input. Thanks ahead of time.

Oh and I am impressed with the RX on these units but noticed on all of them I have owned that the S meter is very stingy. Is this what others have also noticed? Example would be that another radio I have will give S7 while my 980 might give S2 or S3 for the same station when I switch to the Uniden and use the same antenna. Thanks again.
 

I think I bought mine in late November or early December (it’s buried in a thread here somewhere).

Bottom line...For the $97 I paid it’s a darn nice rig.

Longer version: there’s some quirks I don’t like. The 4step mic gain/RF gain is cheesy, IMO. The radio seems to have some sort of issue that causes a bit of unwanted talkback (there’s another thread on that). And, in my son’s pickup the SSB noise is not especially pleasant. This wasn’t the case in the base, and I made a good number of DX contacts with just an attic dipole.

At the end of the day, I’d say it’s worth what they ask for one, but there are some shortcomings.

Haven’t had it long enough to comment on display longevity/ durability.
 
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The display problem I had was I would turn on the 980 and the LEDs would begin to fade on output after half an hour. You just could not see the lower section of the front panel. Turn it off and come back the next day and the LEDs were fine but after awhile they would fade out again. It was very annoying.
 
Alan Blackmon said:
I had an older 980 that I used for awhile. I decided to buy a newer one and had all sorts of trouble from it. LEDs faded after it had been on awhile. I read reviews that this was a problem with a batch of them for awhile. I returned it. I still have an older one but it has developed a problem with the internal speaker I am going to investigate. Meanwhile I see at a local truck stop Uniden is having a sale on the 980 are they still having troubles with the front panel LEDs? I will be doing a search for recent reviews but thought I would check in here for some input. Thanks ahead of time.

Oh and I am impressed with the RX on these units but noticed on all of them I have owned that the S meter is very stingy. Is this what others have also noticed? Example would be that another radio I have will give S7 while my 980 might give S2 or S3 for the same station when I switch to the Uniden and use the same antenna. Thanks again.
Click to expand...

I bought a 980 off eBay that had an "internal speaker problem". Turned out the external speaker jack contacts weren't touching when they should have been. A little bit of gentle persuasion via blunt force trauma and it's worked fine ever since.

Doesn't answer you question about the newer radios, but it's a place to start looking on the one you got.
 
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X2 at less than $100 it is a great radio on sale. I love mine for that price. But for $200 you can get the Anyone 5555 which is a whole lot more radio. If I had to pay $150 or more for the 980, I would get the 5555 instead. I will plug mine in again and leave it on for a while to see about the display problem. But no problem so far.
 
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Alan Blackmon said:
I had an older 980 that I used for awhile. I decided to buy a newer one and had all sorts of trouble from it. LEDs faded after it had been on awhile. I read reviews that this was a problem with a batch of them for awhile. I returned it. I still have an older one but it has developed a problem with the internal speaker I am going to investigate. Meanwhile I see at a local truck stop Uniden is having a sale on the 980 are they still having troubles with the front panel LEDs? I will be doing a search for recent reviews but thought I would check in here for some input. Thanks ahead of time.

Oh and I am impressed with the RX on these units but noticed on all of them I have owned that the S meter is very stingy. Is this what others have also noticed? Example would be that another radio I have will give S7 while my 980 might give S2 or S3 for the same station when I switch to the Uniden and use the same antenna. Thanks again.
Click to expand...
I have the version one 980, speaker does not work as well, run mine on pa out with computer speakers and most of the time with headphones. Also mine and another were stingy on the s meter, opened it up and gave the pot a twist, and it is all fixed.(rt401) is the s-meter receive pot to adjust, with power off, and very gently with a small screw driver.
 
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Yes I am having the no sound from internal speaker problem with my older 980. Did a search on Youtube and found out what it was. Did the little push on the external jack and sound came from the internal speaker. Now to find how to get the jack to make contact like it should so the internal speaker will work. Then I may not worry about a new 980 so much. I'd like to have a CB in my ham shack to do a scan and monitor local 11 meter traffic. Not that there is much of it but I'd like to set up to do it.
 
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Could not find a real repair but a wad of aluminum pushed into the external speaker jack seems to be a quick and dirty fix for me. I may just live with that for awhile. I will set this radio up as my base station.
 
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Cons: Do not like the complicated menu for simple adjustments. Hard to read display in daylight. SSB noise floor much louder than AM in my mobile. Display fades away after less than 1/2 hour.
Pros: it turns on and works.
Will be replacing it.
Sorry, but this radio was much less impressive than it was hyped to be. Glad some folks love theirs. For me the Cons are like sitting behind a gorilla at a concert, I can't see the stage no matter how good the music is. Wish I'd kept my $129.
 
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Not that there is any real current flowing through that particular set of wires. Darn it though I may never be able to plug in an external speaker in there again. Oh well.
 
Alan Blackmon said:
Not that there is any real current flowing through that particular set of wires. Darn it though I may never be able to plug in an external speaker in there again. Oh well.
Click to expand...
Take cover off, that plug receptacle can be fixed. Not making a contact when plug removed.
 

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