Development of a 30 kilowatt heat pipe radiator for cooling a klystron collector

The cooling of high power microwave tubes has, for many years, been the burden of water to air heat exchangers. This method of cooling, while efficient, has certain elements of unreliability which are undesirable in radar and satellite communications ground terminals. This paper describes the development and testing of a new and more reliable system for air cooling klystrons directly using heat pipes as the primary heat transfer medium.