Uniden 980SSB no longer swings!

[BikerTrash]

Last week I received a new 980 (Made in Vietnam) from a well known online radio shop with their performance package (tune, peak, inspection, adjustment, etc.). I run it as a mobile with a Wilson Trucker 2000 on a large magnet mount and it performed very well. On AM it deadkeys 10 watts on channel 40 and 6 watts on channel 1. When I received and tested the radio it would swing (AM) to 15+ with a simple "Audio".

Now, for the scary part of this story. I let my idiot cousin borrow my car and he allowed the mic to slip under the passenger seat. The PTT button got stuck in the transmit position and the radio was transmitting, continuously, for God knows how long, on sideband. I discovered this immediately after he returned my car and noticed that the back of the radio's case and the PL259 connector was very hot to the touch. A quick SWR check showed an SWR of 8.4 while it was hot. I shut it down and allowed it to cool completely. NOW the radio still deadkeys to the same values (according to my Astatic SWR/Watt meter) but there's absolutely no swing. The SWR is back to normal (1.0-1.2:1) There is now NO swing, regardless of how I say "AUDIO!". I attempted to get an informative radio check but the skip/DX was rolling in heavily today, making it very difficult. Two CBers said no more than that they could hear me and that my radio sounded "good" before the overly modulated goofballs from all over walked all over everyone of us pushing stock power.

What do you think has happened to my radio?

 

[Grogan]

send it back under warenty, make your Cousin pay for shipping. don't lend your truck out. Problem solved.

 

[Mudfoot]

Never knew you could squeeze a 10 watt DK out of one. Anyways, sounds like it's near death. Either operate it the way it is or send it back, or buy another one.

 

[222DBFL]

M42duster, I wondered the same thing, how in the heck are you dead keying 10 watts and have any forward swing left? To the poster, are you sure that your reading of 10 watt dead key is correct, because you should not be Keying 6 watts on one channel and 10 on another. Who worked on this radio?? You need a tune and alignment as well as a new driver most likely. With it being on the key for a long time, it may have blown the driver if in fact your dead key is at 10 watts. Send that radio to Doug's custom cb's or someone else, or like posted, send it back under warranty IF you haven't messed with it inside. If you have messed with the internal components, uniden may not accept the radio under warranty, which leaves sending it to a reputable tech that knows how to properly tune and align the radio. 10 watts dead key is too much dead key and will result in radio failure in the future I would venture to say. Good luck and hope you get it working.

 

[w9cll]

Sounds like the radio got fed up and went back to working like it should.

 

[RatsoW8]

No swang? Could be the particular brand of watt meter being used ...the brand name of which I will not mention

 

[BikerTrash]

Gentlemen,

I'm impressed and pleased with your knowledge and understanding. Your replies helped.

My cousin Ed has agreed to pay for his stupidity. Today I made an appointment to drop my violated Uniden 980 off at a reputable, bona fide, CB repair shop not far from home (I'll post a full report on my poor radio's diagnosis).

To answer some of your questions, the meter I have is a basic Astatic unit that measures SWR and Wattage. It measured a higher deadkey on channel 40 than channel 1 before and after this jive @$$ incident. My radio had a clear several watt swing on AM before it roasted. Before Cousin Ed's carelessness my "peaked, tuned, adjusted" 980 really impressed me for the two days I got to run it. Its on air performance/modulation/clarity impressed even my local, LOUD & clear, can talk over everyone else here, seasoned, CB snob who only believes in the best equipment...and his 10-20 is over 20 miles from mine.

To be continued...

 

[Mudfoot]

If your radio wasn't tuned with such a high DK, it may have survived a prolonged key down.

 

[GnG8d]

I thought it was keyed on SSB? But how did you measure an swr reading of 8.4?

 

[BikerTrash]

I switched my radio to AM and quickly checked the SWR while it was still hot. Why I did, I don't know. I can't bring it to the local CB shop until saturday. I will post the results from that visit soon.

Here's a surprise update: I'm out of state for Christmas and only have my mobile (the fried Uniden 980 in question). I drove to an open area on a hill and asked for a radio check on AM 17. It was after dark and the CB waves were very quiet. Lo and behold, a knowledgeable radio/electronics geek with a 4 watt base and Sirio Gainmaster answers. Thank God. He reported that my radio sounded crystal clear, sufficiently loud, and I was pushing the far end of his signal strength meter, "9 to 30+", from 3 miles away. We switched over to LSB 1 (this is what my radio was transmitting on when the trouble struck) and reception on my end went from 30+, loud and clear to barely audible, weak, and crackly. We switched to USB and LSB 18 and 38 and my reception was strong and clear again. Then, we switched back to LSB 1 and my reception was as good as on the other sideband channels and it stayed clear. LSB 1 on my end had mysteriously cleared up. He reported that he was receiving my radio clearly, strongly, and consistently the whole time. I was pleasantly surprised by this but I wonder what the CB shop is going to find when they check it out.

If the time comes to replace this radio, which 11 meter AM/SSB mobile do y'all recommend to replace it?

 

[M0GVZ]

Hopefully it'll be something as simple as a dry solder joint exacerbated by getting hot.

Fingers crossed for you - I like the look of those Unidens. Shame they don't do one with FM as well.

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I'm surprised it got so hot being keyed up in SSB mode. No carrier and low duty cycle along with low audio into the microphone( I assume since no one was speaking directly into it) and it shouldn't have gotten that hot.

 

[Beetle]

I'm surprised it got so hot being keyed up in SSB mode. No carrier and low duty cycle along with low audio into the microphone( I assume since no one was speaking directly into it) and it shouldn't have gotten that hot.

I was heading to the bottom of the thread to ask the same question, but CK beat me to it!

 

[Captain Kilowatt]

I was heading to the bottom of the thread to ask the same question, but CK beat me to it!

You have to remember Pat, I am four hours ahead of you so I see the posts that much earlier than you do.

 

[Beetle]

:redface: So much to remember; so little time!