Development Spirit
TS-590S was planned as the “legitimate successor to the TS-570S” after 14 years or more of time have elapsed since the first market appearance of TS-570S in 1996. TS-590S is titled with the 500s model number with the TS-570S but, needless to say, we started the development as a totally new transceiver.
First, let’s look back on the TS-570S.
The product concepts of the TS-570S were “ease of operation” and “providing basic performance sufficient for rag-chewing and DX operation at a preferable price range”.
Soon after the launch of the TS-570S, the simple exterior appearance with rounded buttons stirred both positive and negative market comments, but we have received many favorable opinions from users who actually used the transceiver, such as “Buttons are easy to press” and “Setup of functions is easy to understand”.
In fact, the TS-570S employed an up-conversion circuitry configuration that was very popular at that time and provided sufficient basic performance in a transceiver having the cost-to-performance-ratio price range. The TS-570S incorporated an AF DSP, which was usually offered as an external device around that time, and received favorable reception as “a younger brother” of TS-870S that was equipped with IF DSP.
The most notable feature of the TS-590S is the superior receive performance that exceeds expectations in its the cost-to-performance-ratio price range. It goes without saying, of course, that we invested as much effort in all the other elements as in the RX circuit in developing the TS-590S.
In evaluating a transceiver, in addition to electrical characteristics represented by numerical data, ease of operation and visibility are also important criteria. As for ease of operation, Kenwood has been developing transceivers on the basis of operability of successive HF transceivers, to which users' voices also have been reflected; therefore, we need to take the history and background into consideration while designing a product.
Though the new TS-590S inherits the DNA of Kenwood’s HF transceivers, new technologies and ideas are also added. We are confident that all users, from the newest user to the most experienced veteran user, will be satisfied with this transceiver.
As for the development objectives and backdrop of the “totally new” portion of the product, we will reveal them in the technical explanations of the chapters subsequently.
Be our guest and allow us to share the development background of the TS-590S and what’s in the spirit of the development engineers.
Kenwood HF Transceiver Development Team
