7 STRUCTURAL FEATURES
50 CONTENTS TS-590S
“We wanted to complete the display without uneven brightness!” That was our goal of designing the
display screen, or the “face” of the transceiver. On the TS-590S, after repeated examinations and
trials, we have finally reached our goal of a display with perfectly even brightness.
The secret of this even brightness lies in the illumination structure of the LCD.
The TS-590S’s illumination structure is a bottom direct-lit type backlight structure in which LEDs are
lit from the reverse side of the LCD. In the stage of discussing the structure, we have also examined
front-lit and edge-lit designs that have been already proven in the previous transceivers, but they
didn’t suit the display size of the TS-590S, resulting in uneven illumination. So, we focused on the
the bottom direct-lit type backlight structure and further studied the design.
We would like you to confirm the beauty of the display with your own eyes.
Also, as the first trial on a Kenwood HF transceiver, the color of the backlight now can be switched
between amber and green. At first, the color of the backlight was amber only but, considering color
visibility differs from one amateur radio operator to another in the world, we have added green. You
can choose either amber or green backlighting, whichever pleases you most.
In addition to the backlight itself, we also carefully designed the brightness (dimmer setting) of the
backlight and the segment displays for better visibility. You can choose among 7 steps of brightness
(OFF and 1 though 6) of the backlight in the menu mode.
The TS-590S has more dimmer setting steps than the TS-570S or TS-2000S, allowing a user to
adjust the backlight brightness to suit the installation environment.
For the segment displays on the LCD, we have adopted a large-size, positive LCD.
Focusing on the visibility, for 7-segment and 13-segment displays, we have adopted the same large-
size characters as in the TS-570S that were highly evaluated. The type of LCD chosen is a semi-
transmissive TN LCD (1/3 duty) that has high contrast.
Good outdoor sunlight visibility is another reason why we have chosen a semi-transmissive LCD.
The TS-590S has a semi-transmissive LCD using a white reflection plate. And this LCD type delivers
comfortable visibility under sunlight. Hence, the transceiver maintains good visibility characteristics
outdoors as well as indoors.
Figure 7-7 Amber and Green