UNIDEN 885 Hybrid CB/Scanner: Best Choice for Road Trips?

[slowmover]

I now think this is the best road trip radio.
Reasons to follow.

I’ve had one a few years and have swapped it into and out of several big trucks.

First, for any CB Radio system:

Performance worth having is in dead-silent supporting systems (power & coax) which make or break using a mobile CB radio successfully.

“Success” defined as, Hear, and Get Heard.

— The poor radio installation is the bane of highway travel. One can’t hear the other man unless efforts have been taken, and he needs your help to hear you as well. Please do what’s necessary.



That universal out of the way, the specific performance of the 885 is as one who’s ever owned/operated an 880 or 980 for AM is familiar. Less than this quality for RX/TX I couldn’t recommend (not for any reason). It’s solid, reliable and gets a predictable response at the other end. (Which is confidence itself at key-up).

There are many, many thousand 880s in use by truck drivers and others. It’s a staple at every chain truck stop.

Now, two equipment caveats:

— I always run any of this Uniden radio series with an RM Italy KL203. (10-Meter Export radio not required to get heard).

— I also use a WEST MOUNTAIN RADIO CLEARSPEECH DSP Speaker to take advantage of what no CB has and that’s audio filtration on an Amateur Radio level. (One must hear to the greatest extent possible).

Both of these are 12V powered, but do not require 12VDC be much modified in AWG given a good plan.

I cannot recommend both any more highly. I use a CB 10-12/hrs daily (3,000+ hours annually) and have made $ mistakes; these two are clear wins.

.

 

[slowmover]

Let’s also get out of the way two complaints:

A). One concerns the Beartracker Radios reported tendency for the display screen to not ever be bright enough, or to dim after some period of use.

1). This isn’t that thread, if you please. FWIW, knock-on-wood, none my 3-4/radios of this series has been affected by a dulled screen. So it’s not universal. The radio hasn’t been pulled from the shelves. Etc.

2). I’ll agree that the display is not bright. Build a hood to minimize wash-out.

— My mounts across the board in Class 8 tractor brands & models never led me to suspect there was a problem. That came from reading on the Internet.

This is out of the way. The thread is regrading specific radio functions & an addition which uniquely suits it to being:

Road Trip King


.

 

[slowmover]

There are specific functionality discussions elsewhere on the 885.

— Let’s say that in my case a radio with complex controls isn’t to my interest. I’m not going to go down the road with a Yaesu ft450d on its optional mobile mount.

— What menu settings the 885 main panel offers are adequate to the task once parked.

Again, in other thread discussions is that which covers programming questions.

Those are neither here, nor there, for why I believe the 885 should be the default road trip choice.

.

 

[slowmover]

A great CB radio — let’s call that one that’s used for & on AM-19 — has some feature or features which cause it to stand out:

1). Some simply sound great. Other men are likelier to respond (is corollary).

2). Some radios have very high performance (can pull a needle out of a haystack).

In this case it’s the addition of a limited scanner which covers open Fire, Rescue, Police & Ambulance (Uniden uses different terms).

— My experience going around the country is that this gives me a heads-up often missing from normal radio chatter.

One can set up the radio to optimize CB priority, but not miss out on available public service.

— A separate more sophisticated scanner can do more, but it’s not really a road trip item to start stacking units in the car.

Here, then, is where the rubber meets the road (and how I see it).

.

 

[slowmover]

Here’s that addition which puts it over the top, the Uniden BC906W Wireless Mic & Speaker.

Away from the vehicle by hundreds of feet one can monitor and respond to AM-19 traffic and not miss police, fire, rescue as applies.

Click the video link. Be there:
Massive PA Crash Unfolds

I recommend watching the three-minute video several times to take in all that happens, and then to imagine what AM-19 had to offer as traffic finally quit wrecking. Then, what the scanner will offer.

Get you & yours away from vehicles. Have options no phone provides.

— For the next several hours staying within range of your vehicle still running the radio gear, you’ve got the King of Road Trip Radios as a right hand to what’s happening.

You’ll be an aid to others in ways no fool with his electronic babysitter can match. As phones don’t matter when it matters.

Those others with working transceivers see things from their vantage point which you can’t. Farther along are others where the same applies. (He helps those help themselves).

Most of all is that you and other refugees from burning cars trying to stay whole are needing to make decisions in bad weather. Some trucker might have what’s needed. Only he’s a half-mile back in stalled traffic.

Friends, there ain’t no one coming to rescue you should be HOW you understand what’s going on. It’ll be you and the others can hear you have to make the important decisions.

I see the 885/906 combo as a very good road trip tool choice. When it’s done right.

This man’s Dodge Charger would have been a great radio vehicle had the owner been one to make it so.

Done right, . . it’ll be King.

.

 

[slowmover]

The particulars of that day.

It only takes once.

 

[slowmover]

A paucity of BC906W test videos via range. (A decent one with “Bearcat 680” in title).

UNIDEN itself has a 1:44 length ad shows 300’ LOS (line-of-sight) as a reasonable promise.

A football-field distance.

At a backup behind a wreck tends to be a phenomenon known as, the backup radio, for the big number of drivers never use their CB (seemingly) until traffic grinds to a halt.

The appellation derived from the fact that many of us do carry a spare radio (the backup) in the event the main one falters.

Here’s the second part of best personal vehicle CB installation:

You’re walking the verge, and with other survivors are asking about the physical condition of those met. Maybe interviews in their vehicles (don’t forget big trucks; driver may be dead, but co-driver of a team operation may be trapped in the sleeper), so

your ability to GET HEARD (KL203) isn’t one of sheer distance, but in having a bit of punch to clearly be heard by other radio operators nearby. A tall antenna, well-placed, is the second part of that formula.

That video showed the cameraman’s Charger to get knocked around, but there’s no reason to assume the radio would stop functioning. If the engine will run, you’re gold.

If the car can be moved you just became a first responder in the sense of looking for those needing help. Move as you can either direction to maximize your wireless range c

Truck drivers tend to carry a fair amount of supply (water, food, OTC pain relievers), but car drivers don’t.

You get the word out (car description and location) might be there’s a driver or two feel like being a Knight of the Open Road to share some of what they have.

Alternately, you put the word out that there’s a family with a baby having breathing problems, one of those drivers in the backup might canvass the car drivers around him to see who’ll volunteer to drive them back up the shoulder to an exit and to services. Fetch & Carry.

.

 

[slowmover]

As to the scanner in this situation let’s assume you’re able to get some info.

— Emergency vehicles blocked a ways back by stalled traffic.

As the anti-American insects who run these agencies purposefully don’t have CB radios installed in taxpayer-funded “first responder” vehicles, might be that YOU can un-**** the choke point as big trucks can snake their way over with barely any room to help clear access. Get the word OUT. Those drivers ALL ALONG THE WAY (can’t see or hear sirens) will do the rest.



As a note to those “first responders”: Carry a fully-charged PRESIDENT Randy with a second antenna you’ve worked out has better range than the rubber duckie.

— Something that will work from the vehicle and/or while afoot.

Those dozens of drivers have MEN among them who will help. You have to be able to ask.

And, screw agency rules. Be a man among the men. The Organizer.


.

 

[slowmover]

The great value of the linked video is manifold.

— How a pile-up unfolds. (Listen to background audio captured

— A normal man’s reactions (in this day & age); not till the end does he recover the sense of a man’s duties.

— A fire swiftly growing that could start a march along the row of the damned.

— One man can’t by himself do much. A radio call for help from those safely parked could make a real difference.

You’re gonna need tools (crowbars, axe, come-along) to get some folks OUT of their vehicles. I’d bet those tools are back in that crowd somewhere.

With the tools is, inherently, the knowledge of HOW to use them. One man has X, but it’s another man has experience Y of use.

— I’ve been trapped behind stuck big trucks waaay out in the Texas brush country closer to Mexico than to God and this was how we helped free the truck couldn’t get moving.

One prays for the willingness and for the strength. It’s my experience that prayer is answered.

.

 

[slowmover]

High Price of a U-885.

No way around this one. It’s expensive. Others with better knowledge of what gear with which to replicate the phenomenon of being afoot and away from one’s vehicle with a BC906W at a lower price with a second radio can scan public service . . .

1). . . will, hopefully, pipe up offer options.


Any of the Beartracker radio series work with the wireless mic.

— PRESIDENT radios (McKinley, Lincoln, etc) will work with President-specific Liberty wireless mics (discontinued; EU-spec) virtually-identical to the BC906w, but on an altered frequency.

There are reports the Presidents will work with the Beartracker unit, but I’ve not tested mine to see if this is so.

Anyone?

3). The wireless mic function is the key component of what I’ve tried to make clear Road Trip King as a thread puts the U-885 over the top.

— Any Beartracker series radio would be GREATLY enhanced by a ready-to-use wireless mic in this.

— Can the PRESIDENT series of mobile radios be similarly-equipped?

— Is it reasonable to carry a second portable to function as scanner?

HOW WILL YOU CARRY THEM BOTH?

On a hot day are you always wearing a shirt with breast pockets (pair)? I do as part of a work uniform I put together years ago. It’s easy for me to carry a fair amount of things in the shirt (has large hidden compartments behind shirt pockets).


.


I’ve both versions (and in long-sleeve)

5.11 Tactical Catalog. About $50. Last me five years plus with constant wear. E-Z laundering.

a). First version tucks in. 100% cotton. Comfortable to a fault.

b). The second version (preferred) has a Teflon-coating to shed rain to an extent. Dries rapidly.

— Point being made is that it’s extraordinarily easy for me to use the shirt for tools.

So — while a second radio (scanner) may be tenable — part of the equation is use. HOW will you carry them with hands engaged in helping others?

The U885 is expensive. But it means only one device carried to monitor & respond.

— As in an above post, a fully charged Randy with a better antenna is both the ideal vehicle back-up radio plus the ability to walk around completely free of vehicle-bound systems. For range and punch it won’t compete, though.


.

 

[slowmover]

Believe that among truck drivers (and a few other radio operators) who foresaw this day and a guy up near the wrecks can clearly communicate his end of things WILL be picked up by those a mile or five miles back from the scene.

The ability for messages to be relayed these distances is how problems get solved.

The guys in the middle can clear a path that an ambulance or volunteer fire truck can get through even on a high-banked Interstate. I know, as I’ve gotten out with others to help coach new drivers how to move their rigs in tight confines to make it happen.

Good radios at both ends and a few in the middle might make the difference for someone.

70-vehicles wrecked. Five dead, last I read. But maybe not five with earlier medical attention. I don’t know.

But what man can call himself a man he stands by with hands in pockets and does nothing?

.

 

[slowmover]

 

[arudlang]

Agree 100% on the wireless mic, its a great accessory.

I'm not convinced on the 885 scanner, I know it can be updated to an extent but police and fire are increasingly moving to higher frequency encrypted digital comms it seems like and it feels pretty questionable how long the 885's receiving hardware (and the Uniden update support) will be able to keep up. If it's working for you on your travels so far that is a good sign. It bothers me that they don't specify what frequencies it can receive in what modes and what it is capable of decrypting and so on, there is so much out there in terms of the latest digital tones and junk, and you are dependent on Uniden keeping up to date on who is using what all over the country and providing those updates to you AFAIK.

If you want the reception stuff curated and handed to you then it's probably good. If you have the ability to look up stuff for yourself and program it in you can probably do the scanning the 885 does for $30 worth of SDR hooked up to your existing laptop and a few hours (ok, maybe days) of your time. And somewhere in there you hit the wall of encrypted comms in which case other than detecting that some kind of communication is taking place you don't have high odds of actually deciphering it.

I'm not actually out on the road using one though so it's fair to say I don't know what I'm talking about.

 

[slowmover]

Agree 100% on the wireless mic, its a great accessory.

I'm not convinced on the 885 scanner, I know it can be updated to an extent but police and fire are increasingly moving to higher frequency encrypted digital comms it seems like and it feels pretty questionable how long the 885's receiving hardware (and the Uniden update support) will be able to keep up. If it's working for you on your travels so far that is a good sign. It bothers me that they don't specify what frequencies it can receive in what modes and what it is capable of decrypting and so on, there is so much out there in terms of the latest digital tones and junk, and you are dependent on Uniden keeping up to date on who is using what all over the country and providing those updates to you AFAIK.

If you want the reception stuff curated and handed to you then it's probably good. If you have the ability to look up stuff for yourself and program it in you can probably do the scanning the 885 does for $30 worth of SDR hooked up to your existing laptop and a few hours (ok, maybe days) of your time. And somewhere in there you hit the wall of encrypted comms in which case other than detecting that some kind of communication is taking place you don't have high odds of actually deciphering it.

I'm not actually out on the road using one though so it's fair to say I don't know what I'm talking about.

The 885 Is far from ideal. But I think anyone can see the potential advantage being written about.

A handheld CB is too limited by poor antennas at the sample wreck scene. A Randy is going to be dependent on others relaying requests

The power afforded by the BATT or still running engine is key. As proper antennas can be at work.

What scanner info is actually useful is also debatable. As it winds up being inferences and deductions. Can’t speak with anyone.

I’ve seen it, then, as some peace of mind. Assurances. Or, bald truths. It’s in those far rural counties talking with volunteer fire/rescue on older radio equipment that a picture might emerge.


What take-away from the thread is worthy of pursuing is to match a Uniden or President radio with a wireless mic.

Have it ready.

.

 

[slowmover]

The best 11-Meter Radio Rig with a wireless speaker/mic (any brand/model) for mobile or for base.


1). Has to have the wattage to get through.

— Whether relaying messages a mile or three in either direction of a highway backup; or, a base station where one’s climbed on the roof for visuals (California wildfires) to triangulate. (Will need some punch).


2). PRESIDENT Randy is great, but ain’t got the juice.

— Or is this a direction one could go transmitting to one’s mobile/base? Leverage the fixed radio rig?


3). Can the BC906W be adapted to other radio brand configurations?

— Has anyone added the device via an adaptor kit?


Wireless plus a Randy looking very good at present (exit-the-vehicle-gear). Going to need battery charger for both, too.

Phone needs its own; separate. (Estimated time between vehicle exit and access to services is ??).

— Keeping electronics functioning for a duration.


.

 

[slowmover]

BC906w Mic

— operates on cordless telephone tech.
100-yard range.

— The BC906W is said to work with PRESIDENT Radios (McKinley and Lincoln 2 highly regarded; and recommended).

For other brand radios (Cobra, Galaxy; and Amateur) adaptors will need to be made.

At least one eBay seller will make custom adaptors to run the BC906W with most ANY radio

See video by BELLS CB:
“Ranger 2970N2 with BC906W”
for comments made on “other”.

I came across three simewhatdifferent schematics of mic wiring so am omitting that.


— As of today, the BC906W is for sale on Amazon, eBay, several (not all) CB Radio online stores.

— Item may have been discontinued.

Prices I saw were $78-$104.


Use comment: One reviewer noted that with mic volume all the way down that one can still monitor the radio thru whatever speaker is otherwise connected.

.

 

[slowmover]

The McKinley is an overall better AM/SSB radio than the U-980.

Neither has a built-in Scanner (nor that price tag). They are can’t go wrong choices.

Paired to a BC906W (and a well-sorted vehicle antenna mount plus coax system) will leverage the ability of the wireless mic to go walkabout.

— As to mobile scanners that might be used, this website has more on that subject than maybe any other.

.

 

[slowmover]

I’d include the Randy with the above to use as a walkie-talkie in a big variety of situations not limited to an accident scene.

— To round out the gear past what others may advise is a good mobile scanner choice.

The UNIDEN 885 still sort of does it all.

But the $200 price difference between it and the AM/SSB radios can account for attractive secondary gear choices in lieu of the 885.

 

[slowmover]

With an adaptor run the 2’ SA-2 Super Flex (wearecb; and others) on the Randy once past the 100-yard mark. Meaning, no more big radio from the truck getting out (and back) 4-5/miles having reached the range of the BC906W.


Or the EU Randy offering of a tactical folding antenna. (See ABBREE, and others; different lengths). 3’, 4’ and greater. (Must be extended for TX).




Will need a couple of adaptors. To run Randy as the mobile backup CB radio. And to connect to an external antenna not the supplied rubber ducky.


Now, a mile or so. Two or three? From a backpack? (Seems good). Ought to be something can take a little banging around.

— With a lithium ion charger up the constant use range to as much as 12-hours. Regular use might bring that down. (Randy said to be good 8-hours of RX).

First couple of hours is what matters.

— If it’s a backpack with Randy ready to go, then theres room to roll up a dipole antenna (DIY) could be tossed up in the trees. Charger, telephone, sundries ain’t gonna weigh much.
(Plenty else could be loaded).


For a Road Trip Radio Rig then it seems like a padded backpack to keep all of the gear shy of car antenna is a good start. Have the portable battery plus Randy & BC906W charged beforehand.

Get a headrest coat hook to hang the bag behind the passenger seat after radio installed. Something keeps it within arms reach

.

 

[slowmover]

View attachment 119436

Here’s that addition which puts it over the top, the Uniden BC906W Wireless Mic & Speaker.

Away from the vehicle by hundreds of feet one can monitor and respond to AM-19 traffic and not miss police, fire, rescue as applies.

Click the video link. Be there:
Massive PA Crash Unfolds

I recommend watching the three-minute video several times to take in all that happens, and then to imagine what AM-19 had to offer as traffic finally quit wrecking. Then, what the scanner will offer.

Get you & yours away from vehicles. Have options no phone provides.

— For the next several hours staying within range of your vehicle still running the radio gear, you’ve got the King of Road Trip Radios as a right hand to what’s happening.

You’ll be an aid to others in ways no fool with his electronic babysitter can match. As phones don’t matter when it matters.

Those others with working transceivers see things from their vantage point which you can’t. Farther along are others where the same applies. (He helps those help themselves).

Most of all is that you and other refugees from burning cars trying to stay whole are needing to make decisions in bad weather. Some trucker might have what’s needed. Only he’s a half-mile back in stalled traffic.

Friends, there ain’t no one coming to rescue you should be HOW you understand what’s going on. It’ll be you and the others can hear you have to make the important decisions.

I see the 885/906 combo as a very good road trip tool choice. When it’s done right.

This man’s Dodge Charger would have been a great radio vehicle had the owner been one to make it so.

Done right, . . it’ll be King.

.

(Video link in post above)

The final six victims identified yesterday by DNA tech. All of them trapped by the fires.



39 Commercial vehicles
41 Passenger vehicles.

IH-81 closed more than 24-hrs on 3/28-3/29.

.