WSJT-X and Kenwood TS-590SG

Wed, 19 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Archived — April 2017. These notes concern WSJT-X 1.7.0 and the Kenwood TS-590SG. Kept for historical reference; they may not apply to current software or configurations.

Brief notes on issues encountered while setting up WSJT-X v1.7.0 with a Kenwood TS-590SG.

TS-590SG radio profile not working

Solved by switching to Omnirig and USB audio. This worked well, for a while.

Radio keyed but no signal being sent

This was very frustrating. Things mysteriously stopped working and it took a long time to figure it out. Debugging:

keying from ’test PTT’ put the radio in data send mode; keying from ’tune’ put it in MIC send mode
tried to reinstall / clear settings, no luck
additional clue: WSJT HB9HQX also stopped working with same symptoms

Eventually thought of Omnirig, which was using the “Kenwood” profile. Comparing its INI file with the TS-590 one I noticed that the latter uses TX1 instead of TX for CAT PTT. Switching Omnirig to TS-590.ini fixed the issue.

Wrong mode on transmit

After the above had worked for a day, WSJT-X started putting the radio in CW mode, despite being configured to use USB in settings. The same thing happened when using the ‘SEND’ button on the radio. It turns out that the radio remembers the mode during split operation, and I had been in split CW the previous evening. WSJT-X uses split mode if possible to fit within the TX filter passband, so it ended up switching the radio to CW. The solution was to turn split on and off manually while in USB mode.

Notes on Petru Paler

WSJT-X and Kenwood TS-590SG

TS-590SG radio profile not working

Radio keyed but no signal being sent

Wrong mode on transmit