diff --git a/docs/history.md b/docs/history.md
index 940e70ec..9f56b7ed 100644
--- a/docs/history.md
+++ b/docs/history.md
@@ -1,5 +1,8 @@
 # History
 
+## Development Version
+* FIX: Fix handling of sweep_mode attribiutes ({pull}`143`) by [@mgrover1](https://github.com/mgrover1)
+
 ## 0.4.1 (2023-10-26)
 
 * FIX: Add history to cfradial1 output, and fix minor error in CfRadial1_Export.ipynb notebook({pull}`132`) by [@syedhamidali](https://github.com/syedhamidali)
diff --git a/tests/io/test_io.py b/tests/io/test_io.py
index cfa8368d..e27ea792 100644
--- a/tests/io/test_io.py
+++ b/tests/io/test_io.py
@@ -78,6 +78,7 @@ def test_open_cfradial1_datatree(cfradial1_file):
             "range",
         }
         assert np.round(ds.sweep_fixed_angle.values.item(), 1) == elevations[i]
+        assert ds.sweep_mode == "azimuth_surveillance"
 
 
 def test_open_cfradial1_dataset(cfradial1_file):
diff --git a/xradar/io/backends/cfradial1.py b/xradar/io/backends/cfradial1.py
index 8d6f0f26..299fb287 100644
--- a/xradar/io/backends/cfradial1.py
+++ b/xradar/io/backends/cfradial1.py
@@ -155,8 +155,8 @@ def _get_sweep_groups(
         swslice = slice(i, i + 1)
         ds = data.isel(time=tslice, sweep=swslice).squeeze("sweep")
 
-        sweep_mode = _maybe_decode(ds.sweep_mode).compute()
-        dim0 = "elevation" if sweep_mode == "rhi" else "azimuth"
+        ds["sweep_mode"] = _maybe_decode(ds.sweep_mode).compute()
+        dim0 = "elevation" if ds["sweep_mode"] == "rhi" else "azimuth"
 
         # check and extract for variable number of gates
         if ray_n_gates is not False:
diff --git a/xradar/io/backends/common.py b/xradar/io/backends/common.py
index 330c9cbe..d954bce5 100644
--- a/xradar/io/backends/common.py
+++ b/xradar/io/backends/common.py
@@ -24,7 +24,12 @@
 
 def _maybe_decode(attr):
     try:
-        return attr.decode()
+        # Decode the xr.DataArray differently than a byte string
+        if type(attr) == xr.core.dataarray.DataArray:
+            decoded_attr = attr.astype(str).str.rstrip()
+        else:
+            decoded_attr = attr.decode()
+        return decoded_attr
     except AttributeError:
         return attr