Some of you may have already seen this somewhere, but now we know why 
the 590 has been discounted recently.   There is  a new TS-590GS coming 
out soon.    I don't know anything about the new radio or it's price, 
but Kenwood will be offering new firmware for existing 590's  at the end 
of January.

Here is  a link for specifics for the new firmware:

http://www.kenwood.com/i/products/info/amateur/ts_590/ts590v2_e.html

In a long list of new features for the firmware, a few things jump out: 
   Easier way to set split. Press and hold the split button while 
pressing a number pad button to give the new offset.  Pressing "5" for 
example would set the split offset to 5 khz.

Also seems that filters can be set  differently for RX and TX VFO's in 
split.

And for the VGS-1, the status of the DRV function will be spoken.  This 
has bitten more than one of us as we wondered "Where did my TX output 
power go?"

73, Steve KW3A