[Kenwood] Some TS590SG questions

[Steve London]

I have both a TS-590S and a TS-590SG. I also owned two TS-950SDX's for 
15 years before I bought the 590's. Comment in-line.

73,
Steve, N2IC

On 10/24/2017 03:33 PM, John Geiger wrote:
> I am thinking about upgrading rigs and am looking seriously at the
> TS590SG.  How well do the Noise Blankers work on the 590?  I see that it
> has both a hardware and DSP based NBs.  Are they pretty good at taking out
> RFI crud and noise?

Yes, but...

> Does the noise blanker distort the receive audio when
> engaged, or affect the receiver IMDR, so IMD products are generated when
> the band is busy?

Absolutely. You can adjust the the NB level and sometimes obtain a 
reasonable compromise.

> The noise blanker in the TS950 is good at taking out
> noise, but the receiver really suffers also.
>
> Also, has anyone used the DRV jack in the back of the radio to hookup
> another radio and do dual receive?

Yes. I use it to provide an antenna to an SDRPlay RSP1, which then 
drives Waterfall Bandmap software to obtain a waterfall display.

> That is what I am planning to do with
> it.  The manual says that there is a small amount of RF on that jack during
> transmit.  I am assuming that it isn't enough to damage the other
> receiver.

No problem with excessive RF into the RSP1. I have also used it to 
provide a receive-only antenna to the TS-590S. No problem.

> I tried it with a TS870 I used to have, and a TS2000 I still
> have, and it seemed to work pretty well with that setup.
>
> Anything else good or bad I should know about the TS590SG?

As seems to be the case with USB ports in general, it is sensitive to 
nearby lightning (within 1/10 mile) when it is connected to another 
device (i.e. a computer). The USB ports on both the 590S and the 590SG 
have been fried. At least the SG was still under warranty.

On the air, I can not tell any difference between the 590S and the 
590SG. However, the TX-RX unit is quite different between the two radios.