Is there no menu function to disable the drive feature of the radio?
Seems that there should be a menu option to enable, or disable the "drive" 
feature?
It's a very nice feature alright, but your right, it could cause some 
aggrevation if you are unaware of it.
that's why you always, always RTFM from beginning to end.
Another curiosity, is the drive level able to be set via the menus?  I don't 
know of many HF amps that only need a few milliwatts of drive...most need 
significantly more than that.
So, again, I would guess that the drive level range could be independantly 
set from the menus.

73
Colin, V A6BS
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Curtis Delzer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, September 12, 2011 1:41 PM
Subject: IMPORTANT blind users of TS590S ATTEND!


> Hi all! I am sending this message to both groups I belong too since this 
> one
> needs to be documented further, and the word spread.
> If you are a sightless user of the TS590S as I am, there is an important
> condition you need to avoid.
> When your rig has the driver logo turned on, it only puts out a small 
> amount
> of power, too small to engage the automatic antenna tuner, so your rig 
> will
> not tune and it appears also that you're not getting out at all on a
> particular band. It happened to me! Not an SWR problem which caused my
> antenna tuner or rig not to work, but the drive logo which appears when 
> you
> wish to drive a linear amplifier or transverter with the rig. The button
> which controls this is the one which switches the view for the meter from
> SWR / / power, to ALC.  The second function of that button is to cycle the
> "driver" logo on the display, and to turn on a condition which limits your
> transceiver to a few milliwatts.  If that condition is turned on, and you
> don't realize it, you will not get out on that band, and the condition is
> remembered per band, so if it is on on one band, it can be off on another.
> The remedy is simple, whenst discovered, the way to make sure it is not 
> on,
> is to press and hold the button wiht toggles the display from power / swr 
> /
> alc, and make sure you get the low tone, which turns it off.  There is a
> single same pitched beep for both conditions of the readout which is
> sigtnificant, and I do not yet know if a voice readout can be set up for
> that or not, which may be.  What had happened to me, now, is obvious, I 
> was
> not getting an SWR CW confirmation of high SWR, just the low beep when I
> attempted to tune any antenna for 80 meters.  ND0B, (North Dakota Bill),
> here locally came over, perused the manual, but the solution was not 
> obvious
> to him immediately until he noticed that the bands my rig would attempt to
> tune on any antenna did not have that "drive" logo showing. BINGO, he
> thought, remmedying the problem with the push of a button.
> THANK YOU BILL!
> As I say, blind users of this radio, ATTEND, and don't hold down that
> display changing button to turn on the "drive" logo for a few milliwatts
> output, unless you intend on driving an amplifier with the rig, and 
> suspect
> that to be the condition if you get a similar condition of not getting 
> out,
> and a low beep when you attempt to use the auto tuner to maximize your
> efficiency on any band and just get a low beep instead.
>
> Curtis Delzer
>
> W B 6 H E F
>
> Fessenden, ND 58438-7300