uniden bearcat 880 or uniden pc78

It's a toss up...

If you want to be able to listen to weather, be alerted of bad storms, have a freq counter (not really needed on a 40 ch radio), have the scan option, don't mind the beep on the feature changing, like the newer looking style and don't plan to have the radio modded, look at the 880.

Otherwise if you enjoy the 70's look, enjoy older technology, and don't care for all the newer features of the 880 but want to mod the radio, go for the 78.

 

I have an 880, but it stays in a cabinet as a spare. The receiver is just too hot, and in order to kill the static, you have to crank the squelch up so high you can't hear anyone that isn't 10 feet away. I really wanted to like it, because it looks great. Replaced it with a cobra 29 LCD which I find to work much better. Running a galaxy 959 at the moment.

 

I just got the 880 a couple days ago since it was $70 off, im running into the static problem mostly when the truck is running, is there a way I can fix some of this issue? I love the look of the radio and features but want it to be working properly

 

Not in any particular order, but........

Have you tried adjusting the Noise Blanker (NB) and the Automatic Noise Limiter? (ANL)

Had the set up SWR"D?

Good coax? (RG-8X),

Any ground issues for the unit or antenna?

Another question, what connection did you use to run the power?

 

didnt try the NB and ANL no, the connections were ran by the company and all setup, it has the power post and antenna out of the back of the dash so it ready to hook one up

 

If you're mainly wanting a Uniden, go with the 78. I've had one before and they a good radio once peaked and tuned. If you want weather, they also have a 78 with weather which is a 78Elite. I had it actually. Weather works great. But Uniden and Cobra are basically the same radio, if it were me (just me personally) I'd go with a Galaxy 959 and get it peaked and tuned. Get a Turbo echo board, talkback, match it with a Wilson 2000 trucker(if in a big truck), Road King 56 or Astatic 636 mic, and small kicker (250 watts or so). Do some cosmetic upgrades such as blue lights etc if you'd like. Now that's just my opinion. But if you take what I listed and ran it, that baby will stroll

 

Not to trample on your post, but SWR has nothing to do with receive, which is what Wolfyinc is having an issue with.

I concur with the post about checking that the Noise Blanker (NB) and/or Auto noise Limiter (ANL) is on, as some vehicles have alternators, electric fuel pumps, etc. that cause electrical interference on the receive end, and these two items can cut back on noise.

Also Wolfyinc, some truck stops sell a CB radio noise filter. It's a little black box with red and black wires in and out of it. These can help in the event of alternator while.

 

Not true. SWR losses are the same on receive as they are on transmit. You simply don't have to worry about blowing out the finals on receive.

When I was using a manual tuner on the ham bands, I could get the SWR under 2:1 just by peaking the noise level.

RF noise in a diesel truck generally comes from two places; the inverter and the injector pump. The inverter is easy to check; just switch it off. If I recall correctly, if you shut the truck off, wait a bit, then turn the key back to ignition, the injector pump comes on for a few seconds then turns off. Check to see if the noise does that.

 

Please explain how this is on the RX