uniden 980

It's a good radio out of the box. It won't do impressive numbers on a power meter, but it gets out real well. Dead on frequency, hot or cold, even on sideband. I put a power mic on mine and people always tell me it's loud and clear, without me asking (I never ask). It has weather band, as well as the "scan" feature, which I use all the time (my company runs on channel 23, but I let it scan 23 & 19 on the highway so I can hear where the bears and/or accidents are on 19).

$100 is a good deal for this radio, in my opinion.

 

I see you are in Chicago. If you do decide to get that radio peaked and tuned, bring it up to Q5 Communications in De Forest, WI. Upstairs in the Pine Cone travel plaza at exit 132 (I think that's what it's called - it's the name of the restaurant in the place, to be sure). Good guys in there, it's not a hack shop.

 

Great price on that 980. Folks are paying that much for the 880 and 680.

The 980 (and its AM-only brethren) are pretty solid performers, and are excellent out of the box. And they're already running close to what they're capable of, partly in order to stay within the FCC's specs. If you use SSB, I think you'll be pleased at how stable the TX & RX signal accuracy is.
About the only "peak and tune" points on the radio that are accessible will increase peak modulation (at the expense of specified occupied bandwidth) or seriously degrade the SSB performance. SSB alignment needs a proper modulation monitor (trapezoidal or otherwise) and a two-tone signal put into the mic amp circuit to keep the circuits running linearly. And to keep the SSB from splattering up & down the band.
An op who speaks clearly directly into the stock mic can get the average AM modulation up to a little over 90%. Trying to get it up to 100% *average* means a lot of signal will be (in the short term) spraying outside the intended bandwidth -- to where the adjacent channels are, causing noise for them and wasting your energy on the channel you intend to talk on.

A quieter-voiced operator would be well advised to pick up a pre-amped noise cancelling microphone (there are plenty under $30) to keep the average modulation above 90% But by leaving the AM AMC pot ("Limiter") set at about 100%, all your "voice power" will stay in the channel boundaries where it's supposed to be.

And don't get too hung up on watching the power meter. Most meters have damped movements to keep them from slamming back and forth like BBs in a boxcar, and they're pretty much meaningless unless you're running a stable tone (from an oscillator, not a loud shrill whistle) into the transmitter.

If you open the radio yourself, please try to avoid the temptation to let your diddle stick wander over to the SSB adjustments.....typically no good can come of throwing random adjustments into that kettle of witches' brew.

73