I purchased my TS-590S in May of 2011 and after doing the usual
things that have to be done when sliding a new transceiver onto the
operating bench my initial impressions were very positive. I find
the receiver to be very pleasant to listen to with every mode and
the front panel controls are nicely positioned to allow adjusting
functions such as receive bandwidth very easily. Connection to the
computer through a standard USB cable and USB port is an easy
procedure if you follow the directions supplied by Kenwood. Once
that connection is established, the TS-590S will talk with any
program on your computer that allows you to map the audio input and
output to the USB audio input and output ports of the rig. This
allows you to easily configure the usual digital communication
programs used by hams without the need for any hardware between the
rig and your computer. It also allows you to use a few other
interesting programs such as Adobe Audition to make mp3 recordings
or Voice Shaper to play around with some simple voice processing
with your computer. To really unlock the potential of this rig
Kenwood provides a free program called ARCP-590 that provides you
with the ability to control every aspect of the radio with your PC.
One of the capabilities offered by the ARCP-590 software is a
feature that allows you to visually scan up to 2 MHz of the spectrum
to see what kind of activity might be present. I often use this to
scan the 6 meter band to catch band openings. Depending on how wide
you set the scan, you can see beacons as well as CW and SSB
operators who are operating within the scan range. The picture below
shows visual scans of the 40 meter and 6 meter bands on a cold
November night. As you can see, not surprisingly the 40 meter band
was showing heavy activity between 7.100 MHz and 7.300 MHz and while
I was messing around with this page it looks like I missed another 6
meter opening! When you are paying attention, you can see at a
glance from across the room if a band is open or not. It only takes
a few seconds to sweep whatever bandwidth you define in the Visual
Scan interface. To access this feature, simply select "Scan" from
the menu at the top of ARCP-590 and then select "Visual Scan".
One question that surfaces frequently in all the TS-590S forums is
how the receiver performs when it's used for shortwave listening or
even AM broadcast band listening. The short answer is that it works
extremely well! The front panel RX bandwidth control allows you to
easily select the following AM receive bandwidths to deal with
varying receive conditions: 5kc, 6kc, 8kc, and 10kc. Note that
the front panel bandwidth display will show 2500, 3000, 4000, and
5000 as you select various receive bandwidths but the actual
bandwidth is twice what is displayed because in the AM mode the 590
is receiving both sidebands. The fidelity of the receiver makes
listening a pleasure and if you have installed the Kenwood provided
drivers and USB codec you can make direct recordings from the 590S
with audio programs such as Audacity or Adobe Audition. Simply
select the Kenwood USB audio codec that shows up in the recording
list as shown in the picture below and you are good to go for
recording whatever you are listening to.
To get an idea of how the AM mode sounds with
the TS-590S click on the link below to listen to a brief MP3
that I made of an AM broadcast station. The receiver was set for
a bandwidth of 10kc for this recording:
Perhaps the most important feature of the ARCP-590 program is that
by accessing the DSP/Filter menu item this program can be used to
create up to five different User EQ profiles for your transmit and
receive audio. It surprises me that so many TS-590S owners simply
choose one of the six embedded transmit audio profiles within the
rig's user menu. Using several different studio dynamic microphones
that I have lying around I found the embedded profiles to range from
being either very boomy or very harsh with nothing pleasant in the
middle. With my homebrew
electret microphones I found the "HB1" (High Boost 1) and the
"C" (Conventional) profiles provided by Kenwood to be usable, but
they seemed to have either too much emphasis in the high audio
ranges or not enough. I'm no audio expert, but I know what I like
and always aim for natural sounding audio that's clear, clean,
smooth and pleasant for the person on the other end. With that in
mind in the lower half of this page I'll offer a couple of things
that I found while trying to tame my Kenwood TS-590's TX audio.
A Few TS-590S Quirks Worth
Mentioning
Quirk Number One: I believe that every piece of
equipment on my bench has a few quirks and the 590S is no exception.
The first quirk I encountered with this rig was a serious
misconception among many hams about its available transmit bandwidth
as a result of some awkward wording in the operating manual. It's
amazing how a bit of clumsy wording can cast a dark shadow on a fine
piece of equipment! The following information in the manual has
caused more than a few prospective buyers to keep walking:
From Page 16 "Menu Setup - DSP Functions and
Defaults"
Potential buyers browsing the downloadable PDF manual from the
Kenwood web site might conclude from the information above that the
maximum transmit bandwidth of this rig is 2700Hz - 300 Hz for an
underwhelming total of 2400 Hz. What isn't clear from glancing at
this chart is that the 300 Hz low cut and 2700 Hz high cut
values are the out-of-the-box default settings! The DSP menu
actually allows you a range from 3000 Hz to 10 Hz for a total of
slightly less than 3000 Hz bandwidth. Unfortunately, the
restricted bandwidth myth is further reinforced by this information
in the Specification area at the back of the manual:
From Page 81 "Transmitter Specification -
Transmit Frequency Response"
A quick glance at this line in the spec sheet has no doubt turned a
few people away from this rig as it implies that there are severely
restricted audio limitations with this transceiver. What is not
clearly stated is that this is the default measured frequency
response with the TX EQ disengaged in the transceiver's user menu.
With the TX EQ function engaged and by utilizing the free ARCP-590
software you are given the EQ software interface shown in the image
below to create up to 5 different TX audio profiles that you can
adjust to your liking between 0 - 3000 cps. Note that although the
EQ provides sliders that extend up to 5100 cps the DSP upper limit
for TX bandwidth is limited to 3000 cps in the firmware. However,
those sliders are functional in any RX Equalizer profiles you
create.
Page 32 of the manual correctly states the information regarding the
transmit bandwidth, and clearly indicates that 300 Hz and 2700 Hz
are simply the default values. Unfortunately, the misconceptions
about the transmit bandwidth capabilities of this rig are out there
and still propagating.
Quirk Number Two: From all the rumors that
are floating around it's pretty clear that Kenwood did not do
themselves any favors with the way they implemented the power output
meter in the TS-590S. It works fine for carrier modes such as CW or
AM and seems to be quite accurate with those modes, however, the
response time of the meter is not sufficient to accurately depict
the power output of the rig while operating SSB. At best, it simply
indicates relative power output that tracks your voice as you speak,
but the meter deflection does not track with the power increments
displayed on the meter. This is quite unfortunate because this
behavior has caused rampant rumors about "low average output" and
other unflattering comments. Kenwood must have known there would be
issues about this because they actually address this in the
"Troubleshooting" section of the 590S manual. Page 86 has the
following entry, which pretty much tells the story:
The truth is that the TS-590S has plenty of punch when
running SSB and any peak reading wattmeter will show 100 watts of
output on peaks and a very healthy high average output during normal
voice operation. The brief video below shows my TS-590S running
sideband into a dummy load with a power level setting of 100 watts.
For best clarity, I would suggest that you watch this video at 720p
HD and full-screen so you can easily see the scale on the Nye RF
Power Monitor that is sitting on top of the Kenwood. It is touching
100 watts frequently on peaks and is floating between 50 and 100
watts when driven with normal speech. Note also that the ALC is
deflecting appropriately and staying within the acceptable range,
which indicates that the rig is definitely not being over driven. If
your browser does not support 720p HD viewing with an embedded
video, please click in the lower right corner of the video and watch
it at the YouTube site directly.
Select 720p HD and watch in full-screen mode for
best clarity
If you do not own a peak reading wattmeter and would like to test
your power output in SSB mode follow Kenwood's suggestion and inject
a 1000 cps tone into the mic input and see for yourself how much
power comes out without exceeding the recommended ALC levels. One
thing is for sure, don't rely upon the 590's built-in power output
meter for an accurate representation of how much output power is
being produced while in SSB mode! Quirk Number Three: The third quirk baffled me for
several days. I found that the dynamic studio microphones that I own
sounded pretty good with the TS-590S. My Shure SM58, which is a
music industry favorite for vocal use, seemed to be the best of the
bunch. However, it seemed like there was a very heavy low-end
emphasis with all the dynamics and I found that I was using the
software EQ to fight this "boomy" tendency rather than simply to
enhance areas of the voice spectrum I wanted to emphasize for
clarity and articulation. I have always found electret condenser
microphones to be ideal for producing smooth audio that has clarity
and presence with excellent articulation. So, I plugged in one of my
ten dollar "station
standard" microphones which I have relied upon with all my
transmitters/transceivers since the late '70's. When I monitored the
transmit audio of my TS-590S while using the electret condenser
microphone it sounded horrible. The audio was grossly distorted and
it seemed like it was being processed by a kazoo. It had all the
characteristics of RF feedback, which was a mystery because I was
transmitting into a dummy load! I dragged out my schematic of
the TS-590S to see what might be causing the issue and immediately
saw some possibilities in the 8 vdc line. Most rigs use a series
resistor, typically 4.7k to 10k in the vcc line, to protect the
voltage source from shorts at the microphone jack. That works fine
when the voltage is used for low current bias purposes with an
electret, but it might be unsuitable if the voltage is utilized to
power devices in a hand mic that has active devices for controlling
the rig. At any rate, the VCC line in the 590S has a series 47 ohm
resistor that runs directly into a diode which is present to provide
reverse current protection. Audio output from the electret condenser
microphone was leaking down the vcc line and modulating the diode,
and possibly the poly-switch the diode is in series with, which
resulted in horrific distortion. The easy solution was to create an
audio de-coupling circuit in the VCC line to keep audio out of the
Kenwood's +8vdc components. The circuit below is what I came up
with, and it has worked perfectly for me and quite a few other
people who encountered the same issue:
If 1/8 watt resistors are used along with a tantalum cap, it's
possible to build the little de-coupling stage right into the
connector of a microphone. I simply build it right at the XLR
connector in the base of the microphones that I use. With the
distortion problem resolved the electret condenser microphones
proved to be good performers with the TS-590S. I finally arrived at
a combination of MIC level and EQ settings that seemed to be clear
and not too hard for the station at the other end to listen to. The
video below is offered as a sample of what the TS-590S sounds like
with one of my homebrew ten dollar microphones plugged into the
front panel microphone jack.
The TS-590S with a cheap electret condenser
microphone
My Humble Audio Processing
Efforts with the TS-590S and a Ten Dollar Audio Chain
Have you heard what the stock Kenwood dynamic microphone sounds
like to stations on the other end? In my opinion it is very
restricted and not too pleasant to listen to. Stations that just
plug that handheld microphone in, turn on the rig, and then use
it without even selecting one of the hard-coded embedded audio
profiles will probably get quite a few unflattering audio
reports. The 590S is equipped with excellent tools for tailoring
the transmit audio and operators who don't bother to try them
out are not getting their money's worth with this rig! The video
below compares the stock handheld microphone to a 10 dollar
wide-range dynamic studio microphone. I suppose that some people
feel that the stock microphone is adequate, but I'd prefer to be
kinder to the stations on the other end!
The stock TS-590S handheld microphone
compared to a 10 dollar wide-range dynamic
To be honest, there are a lot of TS-590S owners out there who have
done much more and they sound much better than what I've come with,
but I'll bet they spent more than 10 bucks on their microphone! The
available TX bandwidth limitations coded into the DSP prevent this
rig from entering the arena of Hi-Fi rigs like the TS-950 or the
Software Defined Radios that are out there. With that in mind, my
goal was to achieve audio that sounded smooth, natural, and clear
when received by other stations. You might have noticed that the
TS-590S receiver is capable of receiving SSB with a bandwidth as
wide as 5 kc. You might have also noticed the TX EQ in the software
package has sliders all the way out to 5.1 kc. Obviously, the folks
at Kenwood could set the upper limit for the TX bandwidth to 5 kc in
a future firmware release, or just as likely, there is probably a
combination of key presses at power up that would unlock this
feature. However, until that happens, the challenge is to find a
balance of lows and highs between 10 cps and 3000 cps that creates a
decent reproduction of your voice. By using the eleven EQ
adjustments available between 0 cps - 3000 cps in each user EQ
profile, I came up with a few user EQ profiles that work for me. The
first video below will give you an idea of how the six embedded
profiles that Kenwood provides sound. It starts with the EQ turned
OFF and then steps through each of the six Kenwood profiles
available in the TS-590S menu. Note that the 10 dollar dynamic
microphone (purchased from the Marlin P. Jones Electronic Surplus
outlet) used in the video has a reasonably flat response with a
slight amount of heaviness in the lower end which is typical of many
dynamic microphones. In all of the videos below, the DSP was set for
a TX bandwidth of 10 - 3000 cps and the MIC gain was set to "45"
with the TS-590 front panel MIC control. When I operate with these
settings, the ALC normally shows minimal response on the meter and
will typically displays 4 or 5 tiny hash marks on a heavy voice
peak. I have found that the less flickering you see on the ALC meter
the better things work out with the TS-590S.
The pre-configured audio profiles provided by
Kenwood
The HB1 (High Boost 1) profile is certainly usable but it sounded a
bit muddy in the mid-bass area with the wide-range microphone being
used. The C (Conventional) profile might also be useful under some
conditions, but it also sounded muddy and lifeless and could be
difficult for other stations to understand. Using the EQ Profile
creator under the DSP/Filter menu in ARCP-590 I made some profiles
that seem to fit my voice and the microphone I am currently using.
The video compares four USER profiles that use the same basic EQ
curve where an effort was made to not over-emphasize any part of the
audio spectrum between 0 and 3000 cycles. The only difference
between the profiles is that the first slider controlling the audio
response between 0 and 150 cycles is varied from -9 dB to 0 dB. In
my opinion, a lot of what goes on with audio adjustments is
subjective, but the goal should be to make profiles that have good
clarity and sound natural to the person on the other end. Muddy or
distorted audio can make a signal tough to listen to but
fortunately, the ARCP-590 software offers an excellent tool to
overcome most of the deficiencies in the microphones that we might
select. In the video below, I don't particularly like the USER 2
(tubby sounding) and USER 5 (thin sounding) profiles and have ended
up running with either the USER 3 or USER 4 profile without any
complaints from the stations on the other end. People who know me
say that the audio sounds pretty close to what my voice sounds like
in person, which is probably the best compliment I could hope for. I
rarely resort to using the speech processor, but when it's engaged
the audio is piercing enough that it cuts through fine when
conditions are marginal.
User profiles created with the ARCP-590 software
How About Great Sounding Microphones for the
TS-590S for Under 10 Bucks?
Several months ago I noticed that Amazon.com had
a number of vendors who were selling Pyle microphones for $9.99
that are clones of the Shure SM57 and SM58. They are sold with
the Pyle model designations of PDMIC78
and PDMIC58.
Being curious I decided to buy one of each just to see how they
performed. When they arrived I was astonished to see that they
looked and felt just like the real deal. I have an old beat up
SHURE SM-57 and was amazed that the cheap clone was a very
accurate replica as far as weight and looks. In the picture
below my Shure SM-57, with it's grill held on by black tape, is
on the left with the clone PDMIC78 in the middle and the clone
PDMIC58 on the right. The clone mics have XLR connectors at the
base and come with a 15 foot unbalanced cord using an XLR female
connector and a 1/4 inch phone plug.
The microphones looked good on the outside
but the wiring inside was very poor. The wires were flimsy
and so poorly tack soldered to the mic element and the XLR
connector that the leads broke off when I opened up each
mic. I removed the cheap wiring from both microphones and
twisted two leads of heavier stranded wire together and
soldered one end of the leads to the two solder tabs of the
microphone element and the other end of the leads to XLR
pins 2 and 3. I ran a jumper from XLR pin 1 to the ground
lug of the XLR connector and then put the microphones back
together.
I also scrapped the mic cable that came in the box because
it was a single conductor inside a cheap spiral shield which
is terrible for RF isolation. I made a balanced cable for
each microphone with an XLR connector on one end and a
Kenwood style 8 pin MIC connector on the other end. The wire
soldered to pin 2 of the XLR was connected to pin 1 of the
Kenwood connector and the wire soldered to pin 3 at the XLR
end was connected to pin 7 of the Kenwood connector. I tied
the shield to the XLR connector's pin 1 and to pin 8 of the
Kenwood connector and that made the TS-590S happy with both
microphones. Note that if you run into RF feedback with the
microphones wired this way you can open up the XLR end of
the mic cable and put a jumper between pin 3 and pin 1 to
ground one side of the element to the shield at the
microphone end of the cable. This is the best way to use a
balanced microphone with equipment using an unbalanced
microphone input like the 590S.
While monitoring my 590S with another rig I made the EQ
profile shown in the image below that worked well with both
of the clone microphones. You can judge for yourself how the
microphones sound by listening to the video below as my 590S
was being received by my ANAN SDR while using a 3 kHz
receive filter. The MIC level of my 590S was set to "50"
with the processor levels set to PRO-I = 35 and PRO-O = 70.
These settings resulted in the ALC flickering up to about 5
hash marks.
The TS-590S using the Pyle $9.95 PDMIC
58 clone microphone from Amazon.com
It's important to note that both of
these microphones need to be used with a windscreen to
avoid popping on the "plosive p" sounds as you speak.
Amazon sells a foam
windscreen for $1.99 that slips right over the
PDMIC58 microphone and it also sells the original
equipment Shure
A2WS BLK windscreen for $14.99 that fits the
PDM78 microphone perfectly. After playing around with
both microphones I decided that they sounded identical
and stations at the other end reported that they could
hear no difference between them. They also reported
that there seemed to be very little difference when I
switched to the real Shure SM-57 or several other
dynamic studio microphones that I own. If anything,
the reports were that the clone microphones seemed a
little bit brighter than the other dynamics that I
switched to. This makes sense since the frequency
response chart that comes with the clone mics shows a
6 dB rise between 900 cps and 3000 cps which is a huge
bonus when the microphones are used for SSB.
At this time I have not found anything that I prefer
over these microphones when I run the TS-590S. They
sound smooth, clean, and natural and I think they look
great. The price is right too!
Transmit audio is a very subjective topic but
most people would agree that it's possible to get reasonable
results with the Kenwood TS-590S. The audio EQ profile tool
allows the user to boost any slider by +6 dB from the 0 dB
baseline and cut any slider by -24 dB for a whopping adjustment
range of 30 dB. The biggest limitation I've found is that the
audio begins to exhibit a metallic ringing quality if you create
drastic differences between the audio frequency ranges
available. Boosting the bottom end to a greater degree than my
sample profiles above does result in a fairly true
representation of bass response, but with a 3000 cycle DSP high
pass cut-off it gets to the point where it sounds muddy and
boomy very quickly. With its current DSP transmit filter
limitation of 3 kc the TS-590S won't be a favorite of users who
prefer deep and wide full-bodied audio, but it does a very
decent job for those who run around in the 10 cps to 3000 cps
world. Maybe at some point Kenwood will get the memo that
extending the upper range out to 3.8 kc or even 5.0 kc would
open the door for this rig to those who like to experiment with
something more than the current 3 kc bandwidth offering.
Other Miscellaneous TS-590S
Information
Like most other Kenwood equipment, the TS-590S
is built like a battleship. The PA amplifier devices are very
rugged Mitsubishi RD100HHF1 MOSFET devices which are nearly
indestructible in the circuit that Kenwood has built around
them. It's interesting to note that the same PA MOSFET devices
are used by Yaesu, Icom, Flex, and Apache Labs in their 13.8
volt line of amateur radio HF products. When the devices are
correctly biased, they should run cleanly with third-order IMD
better than -30 dB. Curiously, after a couple of years of use, I
began to get reports now and then that my rig was distorting on
audio peaks. It also seemed to be producing artifacts outside of
the intended transmitted bandwidth. Those kinds of reports can
be an indication that something in the transmitter chain is not
operating at optimal linearity. A quick two-tone test revealed
that the third-order IMD of my rig was only down about -26 dB,
which was definitely not optimal.
Two-tone test before idling current adjustment
showing around -26 dB third order IMD
A quick measurement of the idling current
settings for the pre-driver, driver, and each PA device
revealed that the two PA devices were idling below the 700 ma
current specified in the service manual. I found it curious
that Yaesu, Icom, Flex, and Apache Labs all set their
RD100HHF1 devices to idle at 1000 ma, which moves them into a
much more linear state. I also found that rigs that have been
sent to Kenwood for service are coming back with the final
amplifier devices set to idle at 1000 ma each. The chart below
shows the service menu settings, my own rig's settings as I
found them, and the settings that I went with as I re-adjusted
the bias of my rig's transmit chain.
Another quick two-tone test revealed that
it was well-worth taking the time to correct the issue.
The result is shown in the screenshot below where the
third-order IMD is roughly -35dB. It's worth checking your
bias settings if you get reports of gritty audio or
splatter.
More Miscellaneous TS-590S
Information
The following downloads are offered as
assistance when dealing with the TS-590S service menu. As a
general rule there should never be a need for you to enter the
service menu of your rig expect for the purpose of making a
record of these critical values so that you can restore them
should they ever become corrupt. The first file is an
explanation of how to enter, navigate, and exit the service
menu. The second file is a blank Excel spreadsheet that can be
downloaded, printed, and used to record your rig's unique
service menu values. The third file is simply offered as an item
of interest to show the service menu values of five different
TS-590S rigs. The values would not be optimal for any other rig,
but they do illustrate the range of values that exist between
different units. The end user should never change any of these
values without access to the service manual, appropriate bench
equipment, and appropriate knowledge of what's going on in
there!
Are you using a balanced microphone with your
TS-590S? Since the TS-590S front panel microphone jack is
unbalanced, care must be taken to avoid RF feedback issues when
connecting a balanced microphone to it. If you have run into RF
feedback problems see if this
page helps.
If you have not yet visited G3NRW -
Ian Wades TS-590S page I would urge you to spend some time
there. Ian has assembled a vast repository of set up tutorials
and operating tips that have helped many TS-590S users to get
the most out of their rig. Take advantage of Ian's hard work!
