BEARCAT 880

5 Year Update! - So you're looking for a long term use update, I got it for you. Radio has worked this entire time, the stock microphone cord finally dry rotted (baking in sun no doubt), so I got an Astatic 636l which I am told sounds absolutely amazing compared to the stocker. What has broke: The only thing that has "broke" and I say that loosely is at the channel side of the lcd screen I can definitely tell that it's faded out on the last few mm (yes millimeters) very little but I can definitely tell it has faded out. Other than that, the radio seems to work now just like it did all those years ago when it was new. I would most likely buy one of these again unless something that looks cooler comes along and works OK. I would advise buying a new mic though if you care about that at all, otherwise the stock mic is still fine. This is the end of the 5 year update, original update is below. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is my first CB radio so take my comments with a bit of inexperience. The knobs feel sturdy, the buttons feel sturdy, The good: Looks Sturdy Changes color Comes with mount bracket, and mic holder Cons/other The SWR meter that is built in, I don't know how close to being right it is... when I first tested without trimming the antenna it was high, over two on some channels. I pulled it out around 1/4 inch, and now its basically perfect 1:1 on every channel, with a very small variation sometimes like 1.1. I needed a radio that looked modern and would assist me in interstate travels, this has already proven itself. UPDATE: 10 months of use I have been using the BC daily for the last 10 months, first with a little wilson antenna which did a nice job, but I moved up to a Wilson 1000 which does a better job. The radio still works great, everything still works and I have not had an issue with it, no do I have any complaints (this is a big deal). I did send my Bearcat in to be "peaked and tuned" and is now swinging 30 watts on the bird meter with a 6 watt dead key. It has continued to work fantastic with daily use and has not failed me. I wish I could nit pick and find something that annoys me in daily use but I can't think of any. Unimportant cons LCD viewing angle is not friendly if mounted on the side of the center console.... but again there is little to no reason to ever look at it, you can see it fine at night also. The beep when you turn the knob, again this only happens if you turn a knob or hit a button (the volume knob and squelch DO NOT beep). I rarely change channels, and the only time I hear the beep is if I change from day to night. It's really not annoying. Random pros The mic sounds good for stock, have had no complaints.

Prior to ordering the Bearcat 880, I was using a Cobra 19 Ultra III and felt like I was 10ft tall and bulletproof. Rollin down I-40 talkin to Big Rigs and using trucker lingo left and right: "10-4 good buddy" "Breaker 1-9" "BJ two two" But after being told that I was not coming in clearly (as well as what BJ two two actually MEANT) I realized I was no longer safe on the roadways with a Walmart special (or in the bathrooms at Target) SO I wanted to spread my wings....and if I were going to venture outside the safety of my home state (North Carolina) I was going to need more of a BIG BOY radio (as well as some street smarts to identify tranny's in bathrooms in the other lower 48's) So I hunkered down on the ole interwebs (Thanks Richard Rawlings) and did me some research on the BEST bang for the buck in the Big Boy trucker world of radios. All roads pointed back to the Bearcat! I ordered me up one and mounted it in my Jeep. You see, us club riders use these here CB's to warn each other about Toyota drivers in the woods who spend MOST of their time standing on the trail watching other vehicles conquer obstacles while they take the bypass on harder trails. ..and no one wants to hear you warn others about those Yota-boys and which way to go to avoid them, when it's all crackling and broken sounding. I read the instructions and prepared to tune the whip (that there's trucker-speak for antenna for all you undumacated folks) but to my surprise my numbers were spot on I was SO pleased with my application in my Jeep and how clear and powerful it was, I ordered one for my tow rig. Installation in it didn't go so well. My numbers were ridiculous, and my antenna failed as well as my RF. I was spiking at 12 on 40 and 4 on 1 I couldn't figure out for the life of me what was wrong. I grounded the antenna to both the body AND the frame....with no luck Instructions were useless at this point. FINALLY a friend told me that you can tune the RADIO to the Antenna! But that the instructions didn't tell you how to do that. First, you go to 40 and test...If you spike over 2.5 push the S/RF/CAL/SWR button until you get to CAL. Cue the Mic and turn the channel button DOWN until you get to 2-2.5 Repeat for 1 until it too is within 2-2.5 When you correct 1 go BACK to 40 and recheck. Then back to 1 THIS will keep your S/RF's below 3 and keep you from burning up your radio. And staying off Ch22 will keep you from burning up your rear and or getting a surprise in the mens room out of the comfort of North Carolina & Mississippi I am very happy with my Bearcat 880 and would recommend it to anyone

Awesome unit! Make sure you get a good antenna and tune it. Below is my review(part of it) from a midland handheld about CB wavelength. Figured I would post it here for some tips. -- From midland handheld review A few people commented on the poor transmission/reception. CB band does not transfer well into handhelds in general. FCC used to allow 5 watts then lowered it to 4 watts. 4 Watts is not a lot power especially on the 27MHz AM bands. (12 watts for SSB is allowed). Radio performance is pretty simple: Power and the antenna. The technology has not changed in decades and its all the same radio principal so performance from one handheld to another should have little to do with the unit itself but rather the antenna. The 27 MHz band is pretty low and generates a fairly large wavelength. Full antenna required would be on the size on 36 feet long, ½ wave 17 feet and ¼ 8 feet. On autos with the large ground plane there is a compromise and a 36"-48" whip works well. For a handheld CB to pack all that in a small antenna does not work well at all. Back in the day the old CB handhelds had 6' retractable antennas. This is a great unit and works great for CB knowing the inherit limitations of the 27 MHz band. If you are looking for a handheld to talk to another handheld look in the FRS/GMRS band radios which start at 462 MHz. The wavelengths are much shorter and a full antenna is 2 feet, 1/s wave 1 foot and ¼ 5 Inches. So you have pack a true ¼ wave antenna on the unit. Cellphones could never work without being in the UHF and above bands so they can generate the smaller wave with a small antenna. I think this is a lot of value for the money with all the options, etc. Feels solid in your hand and I like it a lot!

This radio is fantastic* *Ok, it is fantastic for what it is. I upgraded from my old Uniden Bearcat Pro PC68XL which was a really great basic radio which followed me from car to car for ten years. The old Uniden still works but I wanted to upgrade to a unit that had weather bands and an on-board SWR meter, both of which work great on the 880. The options on this radio are fantastic (I can choose the color and set contrast and brightness? gasp!) and the black face with a hint of chrome is very classy and understated, unlike the huge chrome CBs that are obviously meant for installation in an 18-wheeler. But, it is definitely not a heavy duty radio. If you are planning on installing this in a work truck, or a commercial vehicle I would look at a more classic CB (Uniden Bearcat Pro, Cobra model 29) on which the switches are stouter and can be operated with gloves on. I haven't had any durability issues with this unit, and the build quality is top-notch but the buttons are on the smallish side and I shudder to think of a methed out trucker fiddling with this while piloting 80,000lbs down the highway at 70mph. All of the functions work really well and the adjust-ability is fantastic. The noise cancelling mic works well and the on-board speaker is very clear and loud.

So, far, so good. It installs the same as any other CB radio I've installed. Here are a couple of nuances: SWR meter. I like the included SWR meter. However, it was not nearly as convenient as those with a hard switch. The reason is that one button sequentially toggles between RF/CAL/SWR. When tuning your antenna, you need CAL and SWR. It's an iterative process that requires switching between Channel 1 and Channel 40. Each time you go to a new channel, you calibrate and then measure SWR. But, instead of being able to go back and forth between Cal and SWR, you have to also cycle through RF each time. 33% more button pushes. I think I went between channels 10 times at least. So, I pushed that button 30 times instead of 20 times. Also it increases the liklihood that you're in the wrong mode when depressing the PTT button. Irritating. PA setting. I asked a question above about whether the radio would "remember" the mode it was in. That is, if you were in PA mode and turned the radio off, would it come back up in PA mode. The question was answered, "Yes." This isn't correct. The radio always powers on in RF/TX mode. Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't let you answer your own questions, so this incorrect information will stand. Initially, I bought this primarily for the PA setting. I wasn't even going to install an antenna. However, if you operate a CB radio without an antenna (or a badly tuned antenna), you can damage the radio. Because the radio doesn't hold the PA mode setting, I risk accidentally transmitting in CB mode and, thus, risk damaging the radio. So, I installed an antenna to prevent this. Too bad. PA speaker becomes and external CB speaker. The radio has two 3.5 mm jack ports. One is for a PA speaker. One is for an external CB speaker. Presumably, the PA jack would only transmit what was said into the mic out through the PA speaker. Presumably, the external speaker would transmit received signals to the radio out through to the external speaker. In practice, the CB will also transmit received signals out to the PA speaker. Yes, I have it attached to the correct port. So, if you want to use the PA speaker, make sure the radio is tuned to a channel with no traffic. Otherwise, when you're done talking and release the PTT button, the PA speaker will begin transmitting whatever radio traffic coming through on the CB channel. I find this very annoying. I don't know if this is how all CB radios work. I'm taking a star off for this. I have mine mounted to the top of my dash in the tray table. So, it gets maximum sunlight in the day. It gets pretty washed out. I have to go to the white setting to get any resolution. But, it is what it is. I'm not faulting the radio for this. Built-in speaker is loud and clear. However, I the talkback feature is pretty quiet. I have it turned up all the way and the talkback report is still very quiet. No big deal. Microphone is nice. Looks good, works good. Also, I have to echo the fault of not putting beep settings in the menu. Not sure why the designers hard-wired the beep. Why not allow the customer a few choices on the beep?

Very good hear everything and everyone clear easy set up if you want to adjust it plus it is easy by just pressing the bottom if not it will work out the box. Definitely will recommend. Cool feature about the weather by pressing the bottom

I've been a Uniden fan for a long time. I have never had a bad Uniden radio. It was time to upgrade my old badly abused Uniden for my new vehicle and am happy to report that these new Unidens are even better! I was able to match the display colors to my existing displays in my vehicle, lots and lots of color choices. The performance has been great, and the speaker on the unit should be loud enough for most enclosed vehicles. Sound quality is very good compared to most CB radios. Very easy to use controls, and the scanning feature is handy. This radio is very close to a standard DIN size, but just a bit larger in all dimensions. I really wish Uniden had made this a DIN sized case with DIN mounts for easy dash mounting. I was able to mount mine into a modified DIN space. I'll try to upload a photo. I just opened up the front DIN face a bit in all 4 dimensions, and it hangs out a bit further than ideal, but is fine. The bottom firing speaker is plenty loud even installed in the center counsel. Very nice to have a built in SWR meter and various gain controls. Very happy with this radio and recommend it to friends.

Had this cb in my equipment for the last few months so far so good. Everything works as it should and is described. I recommend this cb

Muy buenas condiciones

Este modelo de radio funcióna muy bien, su variedad de colores en la pantalla se ven bien, bien su transmision y recepcion, con una buena antena.

Tardo mucho en llegar fue dentro del límite pero creo que sí se puede mejorar pero el producto muy bien