Subject: Alinco DR-590T I just picked up a brand new Alinco DR-590T and have had some problems that I would like to share with you all out there in ham-net land. Maybe someone out there can help me with a couple of these problems. I guess not too many people have these rigs yet otherwise I would not have to respond to your request. I hope there are others besides yourself that are interested in this information. In any event this is what worked for me (sans jinglish). I am not however responsible for what you do to your rig . . . etc. 1, I got this unit because of all the cool features it is supposed to have, including cross-band repeat. The instruction manual does not even mention this feature. After calling Alinco I found that this was a feature functions only after modification. They said (more than a week and a half ago) that they would send me the modification instructions. I haven't heard anything from them. If you ask them (nicely) there are (a few) dudes at Alinco that are willing to help and are smart enought to be helpfull (there is a differance ;-}). They can fax you the information or even send it to you next day air at no charge if you ask politely or are VERY persistant (as in my case). Now the big news . . . to modify the rig to xmit out of band (to call the cops etc ;-}), to operate as a cross band remote, etc. follow these easy steps. 1) remove the control head from the unit (2 screws on each side of the forward part of the rig, near the control head). 2) hold the control head in your hand face down and remove the two screws you see on the back of the control head. 3) remove the cover from the back of the control head (it snaps off) 4) locate a blue loop of wire. There is only one blue loop of wire. 5) cut, unsolder, remove, destroy, nuke, the blue wire (your choice) [I neither advocate nor encourage the indiscriminate use of nukes] 6) undo step 3 7) undo step 2 8) undo step 1 9) connect the rig to antennas, power etc as outlined in the manual. 10) hold down the function key and turn on the power This is what you will find . . . The rig now transmits everywhere. it now will display (not receive) 800Mhz band and 300Mhz band on the 440 side of the display in rotation (press the uhf switch to switch from band to band) It will now display (not recieve) the aircraft band (yes it does indicate AM) on the 2 meter side of the rig. There is no AM detector presently but I am working on it. Cross band operation: To enable cross band remote press (and hold) the funciton key and then (while still holding the function key) press the vhf switch. Cross band operation is now enabled using the displayed TX & RX frequencies. Splits still function in cross band operation so don't link 2 repeters together! Frequency selection for each band can be from the vfo, memory, or ARM (a cool Alinco function). To disable cross band operation simply press (and hold as before) the funciton key and press the uhf switch. Note: failing to hold the f-key down and then pressing uhf or vhf enables a strange function that I have yet to figure out. 2, The Autodialer (an option for the 590E according to page 13 of the manual) did not work as in the insturctions. Another call to Alinco and I found that it is also an option in the 590T. On page 19 it was pointed out to me is a note to this effect. These instructions are also unclear. Anyway I went out and purchased the required DTMF unit and installed it. Now I can store the numbers in the autodialer's memories, however I cannot get the rig to autodial any number except the number stored in memory #1. I have tried every possible interpretation of the directions on page 13 of the manual and had no success. Another call to Alinco . . . they told me that they knew that the manual was written in jinglish (japanese/english) and was hard to understand. They said that they would send me a complete manual written by someone who spoke english as their primary language. I asked them why this manual was not provided with the rig and they said that it was free to anyone who asked for it ?!? Simple problem . . . a typeing error (translation error?). Turn to page 13 of the instructions find "Transmitting the Stored Autodialer Number:(DR-590E: Option) Step 2 should read: Enter DTMF pad code c14 and select the desired autodialer channel. 3, This rig is supposedly able to receive DTMF codes from another transmitter What will allow remote control of the rig (useful as a very flexible cross band repeater). I have not been able to get this to function on my rig at all. I can only hope that possibly the modification they promised to send me will enable this function or that the new english directions will beable to explain how to make this happen. Even the grand Alinco wizzard has not figured this out. He said that he was working on better directions and that as soon as he had them he would send them to me. 4, The remote page/DTMF squelch function are completely cryptic I hope they are also explained in the english directions. Same deal as above. However if you sat around with a friend who also had a similarly equipped rig you could probabily figure it out. Anyone with any mods or operation instructions for this rig please let me know. Am I the only one with these problems? Does anyone have any solutions? Is Alinco always this slow? etc.? Here are your mods/instructions. Yes I believe you are. I found the solutions. In my experience Alinco has always operated in this manner. I will post a summary when a solution is found so send responses to me at my address:szarekw@lonex.radc.af.mil Here is the summary. In case you haven't figgured it out by now I am answering my own query. I just figgured someone might want the info. 73 KE2WD PORTED AND REALIGNED FROM PC TO AMIGA FORMAT BY BOB G0LBQ - N6XDI