Newbie

[Dubski63]

Good morning, this is my first post on here. I appologize for my ignorance and dumb questions. I'm Dubski63, and
I am brand new to CB radios, and last week I purchased a Uniden Bearcat 980SSB. I live in Minnesota and am a Delivery truck driver. I drive 8 hours a night to Minneapolis and back. I purched the CB to learn about road issues and to talk to other drivers. I don't know how to use it. I have it on Channels 18-20. I can hear people talkig but it is very distant and staticay. I am not sure if I know how to adjust the squelch properly. I want to be able to hear people and ro be able to talk to people. I'm not exactly sure what the functions are or how it works. Am I supposed to calibrate the radio first? What buttons should I leave it on? I appreciate anyones help. Again I'm sorry for the dumb question. Have a great day everyone.

 

[dkcorlfla]

Spending some time reading the manual should help a lot. A search for "Uniden Bearcat 980SSB manual" will pull up lots.

While I do not have any CB equipment I do like to take a look now and then using my SDR.

A few notes that might help: the CB band with the peak solar cycle we are now in can skip a long ways during the day but maybe not much at night. I just took a look this morning and there is not much going on. Chances are good later this afternoon it will pick up a lot.

Most of the stuff I see is AM and I think they might be running a bit of power ;-)

 

[N1EXA]

I guess there are some Questions that come up as a Newbie.
Is this a hard install in the vehicle or just a Plug in sitting on a seat?
What kind of Antenna are you Using - Is this a mirror mount , Magnetic or hole drilled
to the body of the Vehicle. Im asking because this anternna will need to be Calibrated using
the On board SWR meter or an external one. The Antenna needs to be Set up so it functions
correctly on the 27 Mhz CB band.

What is SWR (Standing Wave Ratio)

This page explains what the Standing Wave Ratio is and why it is important for your CB antenna setup.

www.wearecb.com

For a Newbie its not going to be Plug and Play there is a learning curve but dont let that get you down,.

Plenty of Hobbiest Here to Help you out.

Here is the Manual to get you going !

https://www.uniden.info/download/ompdf/BEARCAT980om.pdf

Pete N1EXA

 

[Dubski63]

Thank you so much. This helps a lot. I think just learning what the radio does and it's functions will be a good start. Since I run only at night that might be an issue too.

Sorry I just saw the end of your post. Right now I'm in a renatal truck, so the antenna is a magnetic mount and the radio is not hard wired in. It is just plugged into the cigarette lighter

How do I program the antenna with the onboard swr meter?

 

[N1EXA]

In my posting which you can look later on a PC i gave you the link to SWR measuring and the uniden Manual.
Read up on it to get you in the Good Mind set and the Gang here can answer once you have some down time and figure out how
all the Things work.
I guess for now if you transmit and the SWR error light or Notification on the Display does not come on with the 980 your doing good for a start.
Id say driving at night your going to have different Signals than the day when the Sun makes the Atmosphere reflective and your going to hear those way off stations.
Your running AM mode on Channel 19 for Traffic but Jumping up to Ch38 Lower Sideband is going to Give you Dx traffic.
you will find Channels 6 and 11 AM are going to be Super Bowl Channels with the High power guys wooping it up.
You will find the CB Band is broken up into Segments .
The Cb band is always different everytime you turn it on depending on Mother Nature.

Pete N1EXA

 

[Dubski63]

In my posting which you can look later on a PC i gave you the link to SWR measuring and the uniden Manual.
Read up on it to get you in the Good Mind set and the Gang here can answer once you have some down time and figure out how
all the Things work.
I guess for now if you transmit and the SWR error light or Notification on the Display does not come on with the 980 your doing good for a start.
Id say driving at night your going to have different Signals than the day when the Sun makes the Atmosphere reflective and your going to hear those way off stations.
Your running AM mode on Channel 19 for Traffic but Jumping up to Ch38 Lower Sideband is going to Give you Dx traffic.
you will find Channels 6 and 11 AM are going to be Super Bowl Channels with the High power guys wooping it up.
You will find the CB Band is broken up into Segments .
The Cb band is always different everytime you turn it on dependingt on Mother Nature.

Pete N1EXA

Thank you, that helped a lot. I'll check out that manual too.