SWR: Old radio 2.5:1, new radio 1:1

Ones obviously giving you a bad reading and yes that's possible best thing to do is get an external swr meter

 

I've never had very good luck the swr meter in cobra radios. The one in my galaxy, I do trust, as it's been verified by a good stand alone meter. I'd get a meter, or have a cb shop check your swr.

 

First off don't trust the radio's internal meter.

Second yes you can have a 1:1 SWR.

Third if you had the 980 on SSB, it might have read 1:1 because on SSB there's no carrier like there is on AM; your 29 is an AM radio. And typically when you an SWR check you're checking the SWR on the carrier.

Fourth not having the built in SWR checker calibrated, will give you a false reading.

Fifth it's possible there was something going on inside the 29 that was causing not all of the radio's power to get out, thus an increase in SWR.

 

It's possible the 980 you have, has a more sensitive receive, though I don't know if it really does or not. It could also mean that the front end on your 29 is/was blown out....when that happens, you'll hear people up close but not far away. Either way IMO the Uniden is a far superior radio. As for SSB, if you get to using it, you may find you like it. However most truckers don't know how to use it or what it even is, thus sticking to AM only.

 

I was having the same problem with my brand new 980. I was sending loud and clear but couldn't receive from anyone more than about 100 yards away.

It was getting 1:1 on install, suspected things never go this well for me, and even lengthened my firesitck 4' and still got 1:1. Contacted Uniden and they said sent it back. I didn't want to be without a CB (even crippled) so ordered a new one from Bell. Put it in, 1:1. Took the old one and hooked it directly to the battery, new cable to antenna, new connector to antenna, still got 1:1. Hooked up external SWR and got ~1.1 on one and 1.4 on 40. Borrowed a friends known good 4' Firestick and I still swr out to 1:1 but at least now I get replies on a radio check.

Still need to do a radio check for distance and I do notice I pick up a lot more noise. Not a fan of the RF gain button rather than an adjustable knob. Or maybe I'm missing a way to fine tune the RF gain?