Uniden 980 Cracked?: Clarifier + Channel Mod

[Onelasttime]

From one of Mark’s videos I got the impression he doesn’t particularly care for the 980. He just took it on as a personal challenge when others said it couldn’t be done. Contact info, purchase price etc. seems to be all on the down low. It’s obvious to me that he’s not in it to make a killing, only to support a few friends and to cover expenses. I’ll change my opinion on that mater when I see a full blown web site like LessComm's.

I would agree with that 100% I almost said the same thing but my response was already long enough. Yes it was a challenge because all the other "so-called" tech's in the CB hack world that had attempted it said it was impossible. Yes there is no money to made really! LOL

Many of the best things I have done I did simply because people told me it could not be done. None of those relate to electronics though! LOL When it comes to electronics I am one step above paint by numbers! LOL I am trying though.

 

[Onelasttime]

I am glad you liked that. I strive to learn from you and your post's all the time.

I am real big on the truth of things. I am not set up to do SMT/SMD I can play a little but need a rework station before I go off the deep end.

I have seen some tech's that have some serious gear including scopes designed for working on electronics. No way should you play with some toys without the right gear!

The real problem with SMT/SMD is that CB'er's with plumbers soldering irons or 1980's Sears Craftsmen/Montgomery Wards 1200+ watt Soldering Guns can not work on them without lifting a trace or burning through the board.

Just like people complain about car's today. That said it is not rare for car's engines to be going strong 150K-300K latter or to go 120K with no tune-up. It can be -35F and it is not voodoo to start your car up. No manual choke and no magic with the carb to attempt to start your car. No starting fluid etc. Technology always moves on and you can either keep up or get left behind. Seldom is technology good or bad usually things are not that simple for every Pro there is usually a Con and you have to take the good with the bad. That said you need to have some perspective. Ignorant idea's get parroted tot he pint that they get accepted even when the truth is not in the common belief. People think their beliefs are based on facts but seldom is that the truth! LOL Cheer's!

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I am glad you liked that. I strive to learn from you and your post's all the time.

I am real big on the truth of things. I am not set up to do SMT/SMD I can play a little but need a rework station before I go off the deep end.

I have seen some tech's that have some serious gear including scopes designed for working on electronics. No way should you play with some toys without the right gear!

The real problem with SMT/SMD is that CB'er's with plumbers soldering irons or 1980's Sears Craftsmen/Montgomery Wards 1200+ watt Soldering Guns can not work on them without lifting a trace or burning through the board.

Just like people complain about car's today. That said it is not rare for car's engines to be going strong 150K-300K latter or to go 120K with no tune-up. It can be -35F and it is not voodoo to start your car up. No manual choke and no magic with the carb to attempt to start your car. No starting fluid etc. Technology always moves on and you can either keep up or get left behind. Seldom is technology good or bad usually things are not that simple for every Pro there is usually a Con and you have to take the good with the bad. That said you need to have some perspective. Ignorant idea's get parroted tot he pint that they get accepted even when the truth is not in the common belief. People think their beliefs are based on facts but seldom is that the truth! LOL Cheer's!

I have heard many times that SMD is bad. If it was so bad why was commercial equipment the first to jump on-board and it continues today? They are indeed a PITA to work on however. I have a Larcan television transmitter power module which has been converted for 6m. this was done by adding SMD chip capacitors to the input and output circuits of the MRF151G amplifier devices. The chip capacitors are so tiny you cannot read the value printed on them. We took a digital camera and took a picture of them and then blew up the screen size to read it. LOL The work was done by a friend VO1KS using a pencil point iron and a magnifying glass. He is a broadcast engineer with a well know national broadcaster up here and is a bit more used to dealing with SMD's than I am. SMD gets a bad rap from techs simply because it is harder to work with and not because it is inferior technology.

 

[hpssb]

We had two of these radios a couple of years back, got one modified locally and kept the other one factory stock.

Nice modern looking radio, easy to fit into late model pickup. The modded radio covered 26.8 to 28.0 in 5K steps but ssb power started dropping at 27.8 and was down to 8 watts output by the time it got to 28.005 megs. Did just over 12W from 26.9 to 28.8 on SSB. Can't remember the AM power, AM is not used down here in oz.

From one of Mark’s videos I got the impression he doesn’t particularly care for the 980. He just took it on as a personal challenge when others said it couldn’t be done. Contact info, purchase price etc. seems to be all on the down low. It’s obvious to me that he’s not in it to make a killing, only to support a few friends and to cover expenses. I’ll change my opinion on that mater when I see a full blown web site like LessComm's.

Id agree with mark. It was a turd of a radio as far as the important stuff goes. Weak audio and desensitized (splattered) by a 100 watt station 10k (6 miles) away. Noisy as heck compared to my other radio (cobra 148).

Went back to the stock one thinking that the mods might have caused the crap performance but it was exactly the same. So sold em both cheap with an honest description and went back to the cobra radio.

There are two ways to mod it. Method 1 is to change the 10.241 crystal:



This is an old method, the above is from the 1984 pll data book from cbcity.
The downside is you need to get crystals made and the clarification changes as you go through the channels.

Method 2 is to use a additional board (our tech used an arduino mini) between the radios cpu and pll chips to catch the data its sending to the pll and insert new data to tell the pll what frequency to go to. That was the way ours was done, more work but clarifier position is constant as you go through the additional channels.

A lot of work, way above my level of understanding. But not worth it IMHO for such a turd of a radio.

Loz!

 

[dieseldriver]

No Less did not crak it at all. Someone did but it was not Less! It is Mark1990 I think it is. The only thing Less did was Brick two units!

"Cracked" as in case, not code. Still a misleading video title.

 

[Mudfoot]

I wouldn't call this cracked either. If the "crack" can't be performed by the average CB shop, then it's not a true crack. At least, that's how I figure it.

 

[Harley3315]

In order for the clarifier to slide properly, the RX voltages have to be disabled first. This usually requires a diode and/or resistor to be removed out of circuit before you apply +8V to the clarifier.

As far as channels go, the only way to get extras is to swap out the 10.2417 crystal. A 10.6917 crystal will get you 27.415 - 27.855.

Cracking the CPU does nothing to the radio other than making the display show frequencies outside of the normal 40 channel band. The CPU chip only controls the display, nothing else.

I haven't had the time to play radio in a few months now, as I've been extremely busy. But these have been my findings for some time now, I just haven't been able to follow up and do a write-up on it.

~Cheers~

So if I wanted am lowers 9.7917?

 

[hpssb]

So if I wanted am lowers 9.7917?

No, you need 9.9568 to give you 40 below normal channels. But it will shift off center frequency every time you change channel, go up or down a couple of channels and you will have to reclarify to bring yourself back to 12 o clock position.

Arduino mod did not have this limitation but that mod was a lotta work for a rather average radio.

Loz!

 

[BadJasper]

No, you need 9.9568 to give you 40 below normal channels. But it will shift off center frequency every time you change channel, go up or down a couple of channels and you will have to reclarify to bring yourself back to 12 o clock position.

Arduino mod did not have this limitation but that mod was a lotta work for a rather average radio.

Loz!

Where can I find information on the Arduino mod? I have half a dozen of them laying around and wouldn't mind putting one to work.

Thanks!

 

[9C1Driver]

What mod are you looking for? Never heard of this Arduino thing you are talking about.

 

[BadJasper]

What mod are you looking for? Never heard of this Arduino thing you are talking about.

I'm really just more interested in how to interface the Arduino with the radios. I've seen a lot of YouTube videos showing how they are bit-banging the MCU's and PLL's but, nothing on how to physically connect the Arduino.

 

[9C1Driver]

This is a link on the forum here, looks like it's from 2015. I'm not sure if this stuff will work with a Uniden 980 or not, I doubt it.

Introducing the CBduino

Looks good so keep going! I proposed using an Arduino or DDS in a Yahoo group called CB to HAM, where the experimenters modify CBs to the HAM bands. So far this has not gone far and I am not into Arduino fully. I will keep an eye on the progress.... 73 mechanic

www.worldwidedx.com

The below video is a channel king mod that this guy came up with for the Uniden 980 radio's. It was the only way to have a semi simple channel mod for these radio's. Mike is no longer making these channel king boards though. They were very rare.

 

[TM86]

CBDuino was for controlling the old style PLL's. Unfortunately the guy spearheading that project found out he had macular degeneration and wouldn't be able to see to finish it. If anyone wants to pick it up they're welcome to. It won't work on the Uniden 980, since that has a serial interface for the PLL, and nobody's dumped out the command structure to the world to allow us to program it.

The Channel King project was specifically for the Uniden 980. It replaces the CPU in the radio. It's not an arduino. It was one really smart guy with electronics engineering experience showing what can be done. As far as I know, he's not released his files to anyone, just sold some boards and then dropped the project.

 

[hpssb]

Where can I find information on the Arduino mod? I have half a dozen of them laying around and wouldn't mind putting one to work.

Thanks!

The mod was on my radios but I wasnt the one that did it, way beyond my knowledge and abilities. It was way back in 2016 or 2017 sometime, so the post detailing the arduino radio mods might be long gone, they are/were on the transmission1 site. Go there and look back in the radio mods section for those years. If theres not enough detail, give the tech a pm (if you are willing to sign up, pretty sure youll need an account to send pms).

Loz!

 

[NZ8N]

Sue from LBComms in Sydney AUS?