Customers say
Customers find this CB radio to be of good quality, working well right out of the box, and appreciate its many features and modern design. The sound quality receives positive feedback for its noise filtration and talkback feature, and customers consider it good value for money. However, the display brightness is a concern, with customers noting it’s hard to see in bright light and becomes difficult to read. Reception and transmission performance receives mixed reviews, with some customers reporting excellent performance while others experience transmission issues.
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Your Sales Price $199.99 - $164.48
A quick rundown of this product’s key features:
STAY CONNECTED: The BEARCAT 980 SSB CB Radio allows you to stay connected while out on the road and is great for people with a long drive ahead of them
LARGE EASY-TO-READ DISPLAY & CHANNEL: Illuminated control panel with 7 color personalized display options for easy use in all lighting conditions. Also features easy-to-read laser etched keys
40 CHANNEL: Full spectrum CB operation & instantly switches to emergency channel 9. Features NOAA weather channels with the push of a button
NEW NOISE CANCELLING MICROPHONE: Noise Canceling Mic reduces background noise for crystal clear communication
WIRELESS MICROPHONE COMPATABILE: The integrated SWR gives perfect antenna matching. Working with the Uniden BC906W CB Wireless Microphone the Bearcat 980 has become more adaptable
Our Top Reviews
Reviewer: mark woody
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Very attractive small size radio
Review: Nice features and nice looking. The display can get washed out if the sun is shining on it. It could be brighter. Also the audio output of the speaker is not very loud. It’s fine in a quiet environment but if you’re in a noisy environment you may have to strain to hear it. As a single final radio don’t expect to get more than 10 or 12 Watts out of it if you’re lucky after massaging. Other than that it’s a easy to operate scans fast has a great microphone great tactile feel to all the knobs and buttons lightweight and small. It’s a very attractive radio it has held up. It is pretty easy to down tune if you want to run an amplifier.
Reviewer: Bill Taylor
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: works great for the price
Review: works as it should very nice looking
Reviewer: Cary V.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A great, feature-packed radio
Review: Uniden’s mid-size Bearcat 980 SSB sets a gold standard for modern consumer-grade CB radios. The array of features, such as scan functionality, CB/PA/NOAA Wx, customizable screen colors, on-board diagnostics and single-sideband, are — in my area, at least — usually found in much more expensive radios. The 980’s most direct consumer-grade competitor might be Cobra’s 29. The Cobra has many of these features for a similar price, but lacks the sideband that affords the 980 effectively 80 additional ‘channels.’Signals, even at the edge of reception, are incredibly crisp and clear. The sound quality is impressive, if slightly soft in my soft-top Jeep. In my first attempt at raising someone on the radio, I made a contact from my driveway that measured less than a tenth of a mile shy of five miles. The other party reported my signal was strong, loud and clear. (That’s a barefoot radio and the stock mic, pushing out on a four-foot Wilson Silver Load fiberglass antenna.)It’s not the fault of the radio per se, but I do have to keep the squelch up a little higher than I’d like to drown out RF interference picked up via the antenna while I’m in town. I’d prefer to keep the squelch almost all the way down and use the RF gain control to dial in signal reception. But, since the 980’s RF gain consists of five steps (push-button) rather than a dial, it’s a bit more difficult. As a result, the squelch stays up higher, and the RF gain a bit lower (setting 3 out of 5) than I’d like.Out of the box, before any adjustment, my SWRs ranged from 1.0 (Channel 1) to 1.5:1 (Channel 40).I’ve only two complaints with the 980: First, switching from night to day mode is slightly cumbersome. The CB-only Bearcat 880 employs a simple button to toggle back and forth. With the 980’s single-sideband functionality, this is moved into the menu to make room for a clarifier knob. It’s not complicated, but it’s more than I’d like to do when the vehicle is potentially in motion. Second, the plastic used for the volume and fine clarifier knob feel of lesser quality than I’d expect in a radio of this size or price range. They’re holding up just fine, but it’s a shame that at least one of the controls you’re most likely to use should feel inferior.Overall, this radio is a bargain!
Reviewer: Blue F150
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great Radio but a few minor issues
Review: Nice Radio, just a couple of criticisms. The Display; even with brightness full on, the Red, Blue & Green are still too dark.Also, Uniden and other Brands as well, should stick to the standard 4-pin configuration. A 6 to 4 adapter is included but it’s on a 4″ length of cable.The Mic Connector is a 6 pin but upon inspection inside the microphone plug, only 4 pins are used. #4 and #6 are not. So it makes no sense! A basic 4 pin connector would have been perfectly adequate. I was able to purchase a 6 pin and wire up one of those SuperStar DM-1000 Echo Mics. Make sure that the mic-gain on the radio is no higher than 2 or 3 otherwise it only transmits an annoying squeal.The mounting plate is a bit flimsy and does not hold the radio very well. Fortunately I still have the bracket for an old Royce CB from 1975. It fits perfectly and is much more solid.You might want to order an adapter that is just a short metal tube looking thing. Good reception and surprisingly good transmission, considering that my antenna is only 24″ I have no experience using SSB so I can’t really make any comments about that.I’ll update my review with some pics at a later date.
Reviewer: Gotcha4More
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Don’t let poor reviews scare you away from this 5 star radio
Review: I absolutely love this radio. All the features and accessibility make this the best I’ve owned so far. I was skeptical at first due to some of the negative reviews on Amazon, but after playing with it all day today, I’m glad I bought it. It can be peaked and tuned though it’s set perfect out of the box. Doesn’t drift at all and the internal diagnostics is a plus though I’m not sure how accurate it is. I purchased this as a replacement from a burned up unit, so I thought. Old one wouldn’t transmit and it was very old. Plugged in my new, cheaper antenna to this one and the diagnostic test failed the antenna. Actually metered it finally and sure enough my antenna is bad. So I threw away my old unit for nothing I’m sure. Albeit aside, I’m more than happy with the clarity out of this one and is a huge upgrade from what I had. Weather bands sound great. Memory scan and full channel scan as well as side band are great features. Can fine tune everything quite easily. I watched a single YouTube video about this radio and that’s all I needed. No need to break out the manual for this unit. Once you get the idea, it’s very simple to navigate through all the features. I put this one in my 2014 Silverado z71 right in the center console. Easy power access and ability to hide all the wires. Looks like it belongs. Highly recommend this unit for new or seasoned operators. Just make sure you don’t skimp on the antenna. I’ll be buying another Firestick and mounting opposite my radio antenna on the hood. I would also recommend not getting a roof mount antenna for this unit. From other reviews, the cb will fail the diagnostics test. Get a good center load and ground it properly and make sure it’s tuned right. Order a Firestix antenna as well Walcott radio has the best prices.
Reviewer: Mc-Neo
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Tip Top das CB-Funkgerät, mehr sage ich nicht dazu. Ach doch kein FM mit dabei.
Reviewer: Excelente equipo. Con la antena que trae el camión de fabrica y la instalación de corriente. Se escucha a excelente.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Llegó nuevo de paquete en su empaque original. Y accesorios de instalación.
Reviewer: T. Reimer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Great value .. radio works perfectly and is exactly what i wanted / needed
Reviewer: Pedro Wong
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Muy buen equipo, después de una semana lo iba a regresar porque no encendía, el problema no era el aparato, uno de los cable con que lo estaba conectando no servía, el problema se resolvió fácilmente.Buena compra, buen radio y precio competitivo, recomiendo a este vendedor y la plataforma.
Reviewer: Maksym
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I’m a trucker, hauling round wood in the woods, radio is very important, throughout years I grew to hate f***g Cobra CBs. Now, you can always get a Striker CB for about a grand and be okay with it, but if you’re looking for a cheaper version, this is it! Works great right out of box, sound is clear, coverage is as described in the manual. Used it for a day so far, if anything changes, I’ll update my review.
Price effective as of Jul 01, 2025 09:53:43 UTC
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