I like to play with digital modes and whilst the TS-590SG is a very solid performer, it does have a nice TCXO available as an upgrade. The “real deal” from Kenwood comes in at a hefty £103 excluding postage so I opted to test out one of the Chinese TCXO available on Ebay for under £20 delivered.
Installing is very simple. Just take the case off, remove the existing empty PCB (the upgrade from Kenwood is just the actual TCXO which you have to solder to the PCB already in place), put the new TCXO board in the move the jumper to the correct setting.
How well does it work?
Stability is better and I now see less than 1Hz drift over an hour compared with around 20Hz drift when using the standard oscillator. There is however the documented issue of increased phase noise to look at which I’ll be testing soon.
I’m also on the waiting list for one of Mark’s TCXO boards so I can compare – https://sites.google.com/site/markstcxo/
Matt, stumbled on your website…great job and tons of information. I put one of those $20 ebay TXCO’s in my 857D and it works well. Good luck and 73! Cliff W3KKO
Glad you found it useful, Cliff.
Thanks.