Kenwood TS-590S

[WB2WIK]

One common mistake is setting the mic gain too high; many operators want and insist upon maximum ALC operation when setting the "mic" gain. GUARANTEED to cause distortion in most cases. ALC should only bump up on scale during voice peaks.
Another common error is to use too much compression. One audio expert told our club that more than 6 dB of compression will actually DOWNGRADE the intelligibility of a signal, so operators should use little if any compression. (Set up the radio for normal operation and normal audio FIRST, and then add a bit of compression, if absolutely necessarily.) Too much compression (aside from causing unnecessary distortion) can also pick up noises as far away as the next room.

That's probably all pretty good advice, but it's not universal. I don't have a 590S but there are many reports of it being "undermodulated" when adjusted per the instructions. Possibly the ALC indicator is simply inaccurate and reports lots of ALC activity when there's actually very little. I really don't know.

[KO6WB]

My experience with the TS-590S shows that when you have a lot of ALC it does exactly what it's supposed to do. It reduces the power output and it does it a lot if you have too much ALC action. Yes, the manual does not cover this very well and it has been a point of frustration for some owners. Other owners have no problems at all. It does vary with the voice characteristics and which microphone you are trying to use. When the TS-590S is used as a stand-alone unit there are just two settings you can try as far as equalization is concerned, you have a low boost and a high boost. Connected to a computer with the program software provided by Kenwood you have an 18 channel equalizer at your disposal. This can tailor your audio to do just about anything you need to get the type of signal you're looking for.
Just keep the ALC action down and perhaps enable the processor at a lower setting and you should not have problems with power output.
BTW my earlier posting I attempted to explain the mic level is set so high that the audio voice of a the DX station could be picked up by the TS-590S sitting in your room. It's very sensitive and can be made more so. The factory default is mid-range.
Hope this helps
73
Gary