I think I would choose none of the above.
The Uniden 980 looks really cool, but its empty. Power is weak, final is weak, and there is no way as of yet to expand the frequency coverage.
It does have lots of buttons, menus, etc and is pure eye candy. Some day in the future, someone will sell a replacement CPU chip with channels, etc, people are playing around with different final transistors as we speak, so one day this radio may be cool, probably the day they quite making them.
The Galaxy would be my first choice, except......IT DRIFTS, every galaxy I ever had was drifty. How bad will it drift? I dont know, but I just read a review and yes, the 979 drifts too. My DX99 would drift like bad, even on AM till it warmed up a bit. That stupid unlocked double clarifier would move it off frequency in any mobile enviroment. However, ON AM it was awesome, and I could with much embarassment, trial and error, make contacts on SSB with it set up as a base. Oh, it lacks the final digit to the frequency counter, you know, the one thats important. Funny how the counter has the guts to show that 6th digit, but it does not have it. Why not just paint a big number 2 on the side of it, because it is going to be 20 something MHz regardless.
I would not bother with any galaxy with a 5 digit counter, if you are going to get a Galaxy, get the 979 and an external counter.
A good thing about the Galaxy is alot of people have come up with mods and improvements, you got the time, tooling and skill, go for it. For my DX-99 they had a way to trade the 1st digit of the counter for the missing 6th digit, voltage regulator replacement and other mods for freq stability,etc. I just sold mine though, the exports have more collector value than real value I found out. If you can find a good deal on a used ssb galaxy, and like to tinker with radios, its for you.
I have yet to hear a good thing about the new cobra 148, but endless bad things, not just rumours, but customers disgust.
Personally in the $100-$200 range, I would get an older used radio.
Radio Shack made some good ones,
TRC 448
Realistic TRC 448 CB mobile - YouTube
TRC 453 and the slightly newer? but nearly identical
TRC 465 which I have in my mobile
TRC-465 CB Radio AM/SSB - YouTube
then they made the TRC-485, basically a FCC type accepted version of the infamous radio we typically call the Magnum 257, but sold under many names and variations, currently the Optima Yeticom uses this. The 485 is kind of expensive though, as it can be modified for many channels, even suitable for ham.
President made some good radios, pretty much any President with SSB is good, just watch out for the President OBama, it sucks.
Uniden made the PC-122XL, same board as my TRC-465 but they say its tuned slightly better.
Then you got the old Cobras, alot of guys here started out with the Cobra 139 or old 148
Sears Roadtalkers were good radios.
JC penny made a few also
I almost forgot Midland, I think they made a CPU controled SSB radio not too long ago.
But for now, for an FCC type accepted, regular 40 channel SSB radio, your choices are Uniden or Galaxy.
For export and "10 meter" radios, some of which are good and some of which are junk, plenty to choose from
