Abstract :
In the spring of 1978 the trade press carried a story about a small radio relay station in the North African desert titled "The Night Provides Coolness in the Heat of the Desert Sun". The sensational news was that, for the first time ever, electronic communication equipments housed in an insulated, 1, 3 m3 shelter were cooled by a cooling system that uses no energy and operates without pumps and ventilators. In fact, this new radio relay station replaced the conventional system housed in a permanent structure. Replacing the conventional air conditioning system with the new cooling system also made it possible to remove the diesel generator set, which required frequent maintenance. The energy requirement for the radio relay system was reduced to 80 W, which is now supplied by a virtually maintenance-free thermogenerator mounted together with the shelter on a metal frame.
