Since the beginning, my brand new TS-590S had an intermittent problem. The reception was fading and sometimes disappeared completely. Sometimes, the TX went away and at the same time, the HI/SHIFT setting didn’t work above 3000 Hz. I noticed that a slight shock on the case brought the rig back to life, but not always. Being new and under warranty, I sent the rig back for repair.
Back from repair, the form joined to the rig said “Control Unit interruption” … I could use the transceiver normally for about a week before the receiver showed the same problem!
The receiver was still fading and a little slap on the case fixed this. I more precisely located the problem on the right bottom part of the case. Pressing the case, even slightly, induced all degrees of deafness! The transmitter was perfectly normal during all these phases.
I finally opened the TS-590S by removing the lower side cover (see picture below, from the TS-590S Service Manual, page 64) and pulled on every cable I found. The slightest move on the green marked coaxial cable and more precisely on the connector CN601 on the Control Unit board induced a receiver problem. Inspecting the tip of the connector with a magnifying glass, I saw that it was not really crimped…
I soldered the tip and everything came back to life… I took the time to check all other TMP connectors, and none of them was really “normal”. I ended in soldering all connectors and I hope this will solve any future problem.
Now, everything is normal and I have come to the conclusion that I had two different problems from the beginning… I hope this helps.
Update: meanwhile, I read that another ZS1 ham had the same problem. So I suspect a bad batch of cables to be the source of problems.
There are now over 40 hints collected together in the Hints and Tips Archive . (Warning: this file is about 7 MB long).
Most of these hints should be applicable to the TS-590SG as well.
To include your favorite hint in this section, please email the details to Ian Wade, G3NRW at: g3nrw@g3nrw.net.
