The 590 is staying in the shack

I've made my decision regarding the TS-590S. I'm going to be keeping it.

Maybe I've made a big to-do over nothing. I know a lot of guys who turn over radios the way some guys go through wives...oops...I didn't say that...I meant to say, the way some guys go through cars. They trade every year even if they find something they like, just to have that new car feeling.

I'm not like that. I struggle over big purchases. I second-guess myself. I can't begin to count the number of times that I've bought something and had that immediate feeling of regret the first time it acts up or something newer comes out. But that's my flaw, and hopefully none of you suffer from it. :)

Admittedly that's what happened here. Initially I was looking for every flaw in the 590 or expecting to be blown away. Well, neither really happened. That's kind of what made it more of a struggle, you might say. I wanted to either say, "This thing is a dog", or "My goodness, this thing is incredible".

It took a while to grow on me. In the end, I finally came to the realization that the question I really wanted to answer was, "Would I be happy with this radio or did I have to have a K3?". The K3 may end up in my shack one day, but not right now. I think the 590 give me "near K3" performance and not break the bank. Yes, I know that the K3 could be some now and more later, I don't have to fork over a mint to get it at once.

Bottom line - I'm good for now and I don't feel like I've settled for something a lot less than what I wanted.

My goal was to find a suitable replacement for an aging FT-1000MP and a K2. I feel that I've done that. And even though there are still some aspects of both of those radios that I even prefer over the 590, there's a whole lot to like about the 590. The receiver is really, really good. I've read the number on Sherwood, the ARRL, and some others. I know it is good, but more importantly, I like using it. Not to say there wasn't a learning curve.

So, that's that. It's a keeper. In the two previous postings I made about the 590 I tried to write about things that were important to me and probably a lot of other people. I didn't want to regurgitate a bunch of specs that are readily available at a hundred other places. I wanted to evaluate aspects related to actual use and not what's on paper.

I had an anonymous comment asking about comparing it specifically to the K2-100, which I can certainly do since I own both. The K2 is a great radio and I don't plan on selling it to fund the 590. It will be the 1000MP that's put up for sale. I prefer listening to CW on the K2, it's just more pleasant and despite the equalizer functions of the 590, I can't get it to sound like the K2. Mind you, it sounds good (the 590), but the K2 is simply better. Is the receiver on the 590 better? On paper it appears so, but not by much. In real-world usage, there have been times that the 590 made a station somewhat more copyable. Easier to copy. But still copyable on the K2. The DSP on the K2 is good, but it's a pain in the you-know-what to adjust on the fly. I find that you have to set it up first and then try to find a sweet spot with the right filter width. Trying to fine-tune it on the fly has never worked for me. In fact, I rarely ever kicked it in. If I had it to do over, I'd probably buy the audio filter instead.

On the other hand, the DSP on the 590 is fixed. You can adjust the width and shift it around, but the widths are fixed. I've not really found that to be a problem however.

QSK goes to the K2, hands down.

If I planned on working a lot more SSB or digital modes, then it's a no-brainer. The 590 would be my rig of choice. The K2's SSB just doesn't quite measure up and I've never used it on digital modes, but I had the 590 set up for PSK in a matter of roughly 5 minutes.

But the K2 has a special place in my heart and I doubt I'll ever part with it. I hope one day I'll feel the same about the 590.