I have been having a few issues with my antenna and jt65 software. First off, I made a bone head move and installed my lightning protection in reverse, I found my error when I installed my RG-213 cable. I also changed my software from the JT65 HF to different one that is currently supported. I noticed today, after I was able to get the radio transmitting and I made a few QSO,s, that the powers is set at 15 watts , but the meter on the left reads about 5 watts. My MFJ automatic antenna tuner is showing around 5 watts with an SWR of 1 and REF of 0. I hooked up my Watt/SWR meter and that reads about 5 watts with an SWR of around 5. What am I missing? Is it a setting in the 590? I also pulled the Lightning protection out of the antenna line and it made no difference.
If you have an SWR of 5 to 1, that is folding the radio power back as protection to the radio. The radio has it's own SWR detector built in to do this. Good luck
Maybe the new software is generating a lower audio level? Switch the meter on the TS590 to ALC mode. Set the audio level in the software that there is an ALC indication and then reduce audio just to the point ALC indication is zero. That should give nearly the output power you've set with the power knob with lowest distortion. I read you get an SWR of 1 with the MFJ tuner, so power fold back due to high SWR should not be a problem, but a test with a dummy load makes sense anyway.
This may seem to be counter-intuitive but you need to set the TS-590 power to the 100 watt level. Now, using the audio input from the computer, place the TS-590 into transmit. Adjust the audio level from the computer to obtain the desired power in watts. Make sure you're not into the ALC limiting areas by noting the ALC meter reading. It should be zero. Hope this helps 73 Gary
The protector is marked "Radio" on one end and "Antenna" on the other is just hooked them up in reverse. I a not sure it is an issue or not.
I got it working, it was low volume from the computer. A hint I got was to crank the radio up to 100 watts and then increase the computer volume until I saw the correct power output. I did that and also watched the ALC, once I saw activity I went down 1% on the volume. I got the powers where it should be, with no ALC activity. I made several contacts last night, 1 in Australia, 1 in Cuba and a few states.
