Hi, Steve:
Thanks for the information and commentary on the alc mod for the TS
590. I purchased my TS 590S on February 8th from H R O at the Orlando
Hamcation, and the transceiver was sent to me from the H R O Delaware
office, arriving at my home about February 15, 2014. Without additional
information, I do not know if my TS590S was manufactured in the latter part
of 2013 or early 2014, just before my mid-February 2014 shipment. How does
one come to know when the rig was manufactured? Is there some informational
sticker or other telltale sign on the rig itself? Or does one just need to
contact the vendor to learn of when the rig came to the vendor, taking into
account some time for transit from Japan? (or was it China or Indonesia?)
I am hoping that the special Kenwood TS 590 and VGS-1 sales campaign
from last November/December "exhausted" the supply of pre-alc mod TS 590s,
so that any TS 590s sold in February 2014 then had the factory alc
So, please let us know of the secret of identifying the date of
manufacture of the TS 590. Thanks. Dave Weigel (pronounced: why
gull) KD4JEZ Naples, Florida
-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Steve Forst
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2014 2:10 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Kenwood TS-590 ALC mod
Not sure if anyone else on the list has had this done, but figured I
would share my experience.
First, don't take anything I say as Gospel, confirm with another source.
The 590 has had a known issue of ALC/power spike and Kenwood is now
offering a free mod to fix. You need to send the radio to a Kenwood
service center at your expense, and Kenwood covers the mod and return
shipping.
If this spike exists on a particular radio, it could cause a solid state
amp (or some high end tube amps) to trip their protection circuit.
Many solid state amp owners have reported no problems and all works
well. others, like me, found the amp tripped with only modest drive.
in my case my THP 1.2kfx which should put out 750 watts pep, with a
drive between 75-90 watts, would trip off with much less. On 10
meters I was limited to about 35 watts drive, 40 watts on 15, and 50 or
so on 20 meters. Lower bands could handle 60 watts. More drive and
the amp would trip.
Sent mine out in June to the Virginia Beach service center and had it
back in 12 days. Have had it back for a week and have run it with the
ss amp and no problems. Played some in the Canada Day contest on both
15 and 20 meters running 70 watts drive and no problems. THP is out of
business now and this amp would be expensive to repair, so I will
probably limit drive to 65-70 watts and hopefully the extra headroom
will give it a longer life. I'll treat it like a 550 - 600 watt amp
instead of 750.
So I was happy with the result. Your mileage may vary. The mod
consists of some hardware changes and some changes in the alignment
procedure. If your 590 was built starting in January 2014, the changes
were implemented at the factory. Anything built from 2010 - 2013 can
get the mod if you desire. Obviously most of these radios are long
out of warranty, but kenwood is treating this as a warranty repair.
Mine was built in April 2011 and purchased in June 2011.
Anyway, that's my long winded story.
73, Steve KW3A
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