Richard your 590 has two  vf o's , one is designated V F O A and the other V
F O B. When you press the V F O a/b button you are switching between these
two V F O's. If you are on a frequency, for instance, 7.225 with V F O A and
V F O B is on, for example, 14.313, by pressing the V F O A/B button you
will be switching between these two frequencies, back and forth. However, if
you are on V F O A and you press and hold the V F O A/B button it will put V
F O B on the same frequency as V F O A. In the example I just gave, if you
are listening to V F O A on 7.225 and you press and hold the V F O A/B
button, you will hear a short tone, indicating that you have put V F O B
also on 7.225, and the two VFO's will be on the same band and frequency.
Now, if you are still on V F O A, you can tune around the band and you will
be changing only your V F O A, or in like manner, if you press the A/B
button and switch to V F O B, you can tune around the band and you will be
only changing your V F O B, and the other V F O will stay on the frequency
you left it on until you switch to it and change its frequency. 

Split operation is useful especially of you work DX and the DX station is
transmitting on one frequency but listening on another frequency. For
instance, just this morning I worked CT9/DL8JJ on Madeira Islands; he was
transmitting on 28.047 MHz and listening up around 28.048 MHz So, I placed
my V F O A on 28.047, pressed and held my A/B button to put the V F O B on
the same frequency, and then I pressed the V F O " SPLIT " button, the first
button on the second row of buttons to the right of the large tuning knob,
which put me in split mode; when you do this, your 590's speech will say: "V
F O A S, which tells you that you are in split mode. Now, I pressed the
button immediately to the right of this first button, called the TF-SET
button, and held it while I tuned up in frequency to 28.047 or actually
until I heard the big pile-up, and then, I tuned around that frequency a
little while still pressing the same TF-SET button, to find a good spot to
set my V F O B on to call CT9/DL8JJ. Now, I was listening to CT9/DL8JJ on
his transmitting frequency of 28.047, but when I transmitted to call him, I
was transmitting on 28.048 or close to it. Thus, I was operating split
frequency mode. There is another way of doing this, but that is how I do it,
and it works great for me. 

If this is not clear, and you need a better explanation or a clarification,
let me know. I fully understand how challenging this stuff can be. First, I
remember when I was first getting into ham radio and I didn't even know what
coax cable was! Furthermore, I have read and studied the 590 manual and
still don't understand a lot of what the 590 can do, and only thanks to the
many wonderful ham buddies here on our Blind Hams list who have helped
several times, have I understood some of the things that were just not at
all clear in the manual.

Ron, K8HSY

-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Colin McDonald
Sent: Friday, November 28, 2014 11:02 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Please Help Me Better Understand "VFO A/B" vs. "Main/Sub
Receiver" Capabilities on the Kenwood TS-2000

you've already got it figured out.
The main receiver on the ts2000 has two independant VFO's.
These can be used at the same time, one for receive, one for transmit...or
they can just be two separate VFO's...for instance, if you want to work
split, you set VFO a to your rx frequency, and VFO B to your tx frequency. 
Or, you can simply have one VFO say on 14.285, and the other on 7.158 so you
can toggle between two frequencies quickly.
The sub receiver doesn't have two VFO's really, but does allow you to use
split operation or repeater offset they call it.
Based on your comments, I think you have it figured out anyway.  It's not as
complex as you may think.

73
Colin, V A6BKX

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard B McDonald
Sent: Friday, November 28, 2014 9:45 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Please Help Me Better Understand "VFO A/B" vs. "Main/Sub Receiver" 
Capabilities on the Kenwood TS-2000

Hi!



I need a bit of help to better understand these two capabilities.  Yes, I
have read the manual and I will read it again several times; but this is not
getting me to a proper understanding.  So, can you please help me grasp the
following:



1.  VFO A/B operation is not the same as operating on the Main/Sub receiver
simultaneously, right?  That is, you are not transmitting on one receiver
(Main/Sub) and receiving on the other.



2.  VFO A/B operation happens on the same, single receiver, right?  That is,
it can happen on the Main receiver, but VFO A/B operation cannot be done on
the Sub receiver, or can it?  When they speak of VFO A/B operation "A" and
"B" are *not* referring to the Main and Sub receivers, right?



3. I *think* VFO A/B operations refer to utilizing "split operation"; which
has something to do with transmitting/receiving on different frequencies but
all on the same, one receiver (i.e., either the Main or the Sub).
Conceptually, it is sort of like the notion of offsets when, for example,
using 2M repeaters - or so I presently understand it.  Is this fundamentally
right?



I appreciate your helping me get my head around these concepts and
capabilities.



73,

Richard KK6MRH