Which radio would you go with?

I grabbed the Uniden 980SSB last month when it was on sale ($130); it sells for under $150 on Amazon. The radio is a fantastic performer so far, and I want to see how it works on a decent antenna.

The reviews show great performance, and my casual listening reveals a very good receiver. Not quite as good as my $1200 Yaesu, but not far off. Uniden really nailed the stability issue. I find it funny to listen to the guys with their "big Galaxy"radios on sideband, having to keep one hand on the clarifier knob to compensate for their signal drift.

Yes, the 880/980 is locked down rather tightly. No out of band (though there has been a little progress here), and you're not going to "whistle up" 50 watts. However, my recommendation is to keep it stock, since it puts out a really clean signal with a good microphone on it. If you need MOAR POWER, use something outboard.

Or, how's this for an interesting thought... run legal!

I'm not sure how the 880 compares to the 980. I figured that with the tighter tolerances needed for good performance on SSB, it may well have better components in it. And given that the price difference is only $20 (again, on Amazon), I'd go with the 980. And besides, 38 LSB is fun!

 

Well no mods on the 880... yet. Stoill relatively new. But you are >in my opinion< comparing apples and oranges. The 880 is a very cool looking SSB radio, On the other hand the 929 is rather bland am unit... The 880 may eventually have boards available to expand it's frequency coverage. However be aware that it is surface mount technology which requioresspecializedtools and expertise to mod. Yes the 929 is modifiable but it's AM only. Two different applications from my perspective.

Want sideband? Want mods? Consider the Cobra 148 GTL. Can be had for $129 Brand new online. It' basically the same guts as the much revered Cobra 2000 base with a few less bells and whistles like the dual clarifier and frequ. counter. However you can add both if you like. The 148 is one of the kings of modifications. you can make it sing and dance for a few dollars worth of parts. There is a guy on EBay that offers a kit to make it 128 channels and have a true readout frequency counter that reads on transmit ANDE receive, just like it's big brother the 2000.

Where the 148 is behind the Uniden is looks. Truth be told I have not yet handled one, and may not for a while. I like mods myself. I like out of band frequencies. The surface mount technology makes this type of mod tough. But it does look great! If the 880 is what you want... You may want to get a 148 as a stop gap. To my knowledge Uniden has not yet released a European version of this radio. When they do the factory mods will essentially be built into the radio. 148's can always be re-sold. Modified ones go for good money.

Another advantage is 148's, in an unmodified format can be had inexpensively, if you are motivated to look. Stay off Ebay.... Last year I decided to purchase and mod a 148m for fun. Many on craigslist were asking around $100. One jerk was (and still is, LOL!) asking $300?!?. Well I emailed each one I saw pointing out the brand new price of $129. OTffered $50. Third offer took it! Brought a Lighter plug and tested. Radio was strong. The point is... for $50 you could add some mods and have a nice radio off the bat. In fact... if I remember right the fellow selling the frequency counter/channel expansion kit for th3 148 on Ebay was asking around 60 dollars. So for well within your budget you could pull off a pretty slick radio.

The 929 is a pretty plain vanilla AM. No problems but I think the Cobra 29 is a better buy. Tons of mods out there and many, if not most can be done without kits.

In all fairness to the 880... You can easily do echo (if you must, I'm not an echo fan LOL!), pre-amp other mods right now. Also there is a high power mosfet upgrade, or you could easily add an RFZ 175 unit t make i9t over 100 watts. The 880 is more bleeding edge than leading edge at the moment. It's still too new to have had much experimentation being done to it. If you only want to run "in band" and want a hot looking radio, it's a good choice.

 

Absolutely. But for while it will be difficult to work on the SMT boards. A lot of information what to do will be available well before it will be easy to get it done. One thing I did not mention. SSB units have always tended to lend themselves to mods. The 880 being an SSB rig is a good bet. Between the 2 radios you mentioned my personal preference would be the 880... It's too good looking. You can't really go wrong with a Uniden...

 

You are correct. The 880 is the AM equivalent of the 980. I reversed the numbers in my head .

Sideband is great for distance. Lots of stock skip contacts made. You get tomuse 12 watts stock. Lots of serious discussions on sideband... tech stuff, etc. The one thing I didn't mention is thje price between the two... Walmart sells the 880 AM for 118, the 980 SSB is only 139. For 21 bucks I'd get the sideband. Consider it your first mod and a cheap one at that. LOL!

Don't know if it's they are the best prices but that's where I first saw them.

 

No mods on the 980 ???? I had "extra channels" in mine the week they were released.