RANDOM SIGNALS / UNIDEN 980SSB VS. PRESIDENT MCKINLEY

MISC END OF THE MONTH STUFF

Time continues to blaze a path towards 2020 and the Halloween decor in all the stores seem kinda old now as they've been up since Labor day, and I had a couple of things to note before we're into October. First, there's a YouTube video of one man's unique mobile setup which was posted on another radio forum. Next up is my radio comparison.

ODD USE OF LITTLE CAMERA IN THE MOBILE SHACK

UNIDEN 980SSB VS. PRESIDENT McKINLEY

I've been doing an A/B comparison in the mobile shack between the 980 and the McKinley while I still have both radios. Here's a few things I noted:

• The 980's NB doesn't seem to work as well as the McK. It should, but it didn't.
• The display in the McK is easier to see than the one in the 980. I tried every color option, playing around with brightness/contrast settings, but unless I was driving at night, it was hard to view the 980's display - especially if the radio wasn't directly in front of me. The orange colored background of the McK with black numbers is much better (or my old eyes at least).
• Because the Uniden is larger, it takes up more space than the McK
• I really had to use an external speaker on the 980 while the front-firing speaker in the President was all I needed.
• Even though the microphone pinout is identical,  the voltage on Pin 6 is NOT. There's 8v on the Uniden and 11v on the President, so the President hand mic would not work on the 980SSB. The radio will key, but you won't get audio. It's probably not that big of a deal however I was thinking of trying Uniden's wireless microphone on the President and I'm wondering if that extra 3v in the McK will harm it or not.
• Regarding cosmetics, of course, the 980 is a nicer looking radio
• NOAA WX station reception was equally MEH on both units
• Clarifier mod's are pretty much the same
• The President's auto-swr is nice

I didn't go into this wanting to like one radio better than the other but I guess I came out of this A/B test liking the President McKinley more than the 980SSB. When purchased NEW the McKinley sells for $179.95 while the Uniden can be had for $119 including shipping (if you can navigate through all of those BS EBay ads trying to sell you one for $180-$250).
So just this short update before I don my pumpkin face for October -

73

Woody