Completely Clueless needs help picking a radio

Of the two I'd choose the 980 but it might be more than you need unless you have an interest in SSB. In it's stock form it's a decent performer, especially on SSB where it is rock-steady (no frequency drift). It benefits greatly from a good aftermarket microphone such as a 636L or an RK56. The downside to the 980 - and it's little brother, the AM- only 880- is that thus far no one has been able to modify them for extra frequencies and they don't really peak out all that well.

The 29LX is, in my opinion over-rated. Open one up and you will see the same basic board that has been in all 29s for years. They tune up about as well as any 29 which does give them an advantage over the 980 but if it's just extra power you are after then it's easy enough to add an amp.

The single biggest factor that will affect any radios performance is the antenna and antenna cable. You can put the best radio in the world in your truck but if you have a crappy antenna the radio just won't perform to it's potential. Experience has shown most company-issued antennae are garbage.

 

I agree with Bashnya the 980 is a very good little radio. And SSB is a real plus for fun talking DX on 38 LSB. At times on SSB you can talk all over the country.

 

The difference between the two radios you are looking at, is the 980 has the ability to do Single Side Band. (SSB) Most truckers just stay on AM only and don't do SSB. You can do AM on the 980 but the thing is, unless you plan to use the SSB portion, it's money wasted when the 29LX will do the same job.

Of course the SSB is nice if when skip rolls in, you want to see if you can call out on 36-40 on the lower side band (LSB) and see if you can talk a few states away. SSB is also nice when another driver has a SSB radio, in which you can talk a little further than you can on AM.

Either way, your call. Either will get the job done, the 980 just gives you the SSB option if you choose.

 

If you just use it to talk to the guard shack and nothing else, don't worry about the radio. Most of the time you are going to be sitting near the shack and don't have to have a peaked radio to talk to them, less than a watt will do.

 

Go to Pilot/FlyingJ and check out the standard Cobra 29. You can get them on sale for $79 after rebate. Best deal around right now.

 

I, too, would opt for a "utilitarian" CB; the Uniden 880 will be great for the uses you describe. If at some time you believe you *might* want to delve into SSB (mostly for DX), then the 980 is hard to beat, assuming you feed it with a low-distortion power microphone to keep the average modulation up (i.e., no "noise toys" that serve mostly to make your signal *less* readable).
But if it's primarily going to be used for listening for traffic/road problems, I'd recommend for saving the money you'd otherwise be putting into a somewhat redundantly-named "tweak & peak" and put that money into a well designed, correctly installed & adjusted antenna system. The stuff that plugs into your antenna jack, to include coax, mount, antenna itself and its environs (plastic, metal, metal some distance away, metal roof (well, we can hope...) will have more to do with how *any* two-way radio performs than any "magic" that some hack with a screwdriver and a $10 field strength meter can perform.

I've got a half-dozen Cobra 29s here that all work flawlessly, even two older side-mounted mic jacks. They all tune the same, and frankly anything that you could have done to a stock '29 to increase the power, i.e., make it "loud and proud" <sigh!> will do so at the expense of lots of that "extra power" going out on channels you're not even dialed up on, and serve only to interfere with your fellow operators a channel or two (or many) away from your desired channel.

Short of adding a *clean* outboard amplifier, with adequate band filtering, there's nothing you can do *to your radio alone* to increase your range. And keep in mind that a well designed antenna system on your vehicle is the only solution/upgrade that will help your transmitted signal symmetrically with your receiver's performance. I typically talk 8-10 miles with a shorty antenna in a roof center roof mount and my choice of an Maxrad base loaded CB antenna, or a top loaded 24" Diesel/BarJan TS special. But, as a commercial radio tech & ham who has radios with matching antennas that cover from around 3.6 MHz to 1,300 MHz in the van (nice to have lotsa antenna space on the roof , I know how to choose the most efficient mounts (NMO style, for those keeping track), proper coax, and true silver & Teflon® insulators on the antenna connectors on the coax. Putting the money into a resonant antenna that is installed to work over a competent counterpoise (called in the vernacular as a "ground plane") perpindicular to and at the same height as the feed point of the antenna -- the mount --- where the shield of the coax on the mount attaches. A gangly, random length of wire/braid/foil from some distance away that get gets bolted to a random mounting bracket for a door hinge or mirror mount ain't gonna cut it, especially if your roof is plastic (Fibreglas™). For that scenario, please see my previous posts regarding "antenna solution for fibreglas Cascadia" or "vertical dipole for trucks".

I agree with a previous poster that the digital face Cobra 29s are the same main board, but the multiple panel lighting schemes can be nice, and the channel scan feature can be nice if you find yourself driving someplace near B.F. Egypt, or even expanses of either Hwy 99 in California, where 19 is virtually unused, or long stretches of the Alaska Highway ("Alcan", only called that by tourists) , to figure out where everyone is talking.

But a run of the mill "tweak and peak" typically does nothing more than disable the transmit audio "limiter", which keeps the modulation at no more than 100% to keep your signal loud *on channel*, and may be able to strangle 6 or 7 watts out of a final amplifier stage that was really only made to give 4 or maybe 5 watts of *useful* power output on the channel; the rest of the "added power" is spread out over much more spectrum, where it only server to annoy your radio neighbors, including possibly the ones who are calling for help at the scene of a breakdown or injury collision, keeping them from hearing supplies, or indeed even covering up their calls for assistance. All in name of sounding "loud & proud", which nobody has been able to define on this forum besides ("so loud that everyone can hear me when I talk") -- from below 26 MHz to above 28 MHz....until the final transistor(s) turn into expensive globs of plastic encapsulating what *used* to be a precision nearly-microscopic junction of teensy parts on two different surfaces of semiconductor material.

Hope this helps some. Look for a licensed shop -- licenses are no longer required by the FCC for working on CB rigs, but the possession shows that the tech knows what he's talking about (or used to know when he satin front of an FCC Examiner). Ask to see the guy/lady's service bench, and ask for the 30-second tour describing each equipment and what it does. If all you see is a big-scaled Dosy or Radio Shack power meter, a couple of "diddle sticks" (ceramic or plastic tuning tools), and maybe a voltmeter, I'd be inclined to leave literal skid marks on the floor as you exit with your radio in-hand.

Hope that helps.
73

 

handle bar u have to remember we r noobs

 

get a 10 meter convert its the only way u can get over the trash!!!!!

 

other then spen the most money on coax and tune ur antenna a whole 20 bucks lol its not hard