[VHFcontesting] water cooling

[John D'Ausilio]

Anyone ever tried this?

I've got 100W+ class amplifiers for 902-3G, which I inherited mounted
on huge (12" x 12") heatsinks with standoffs and a protective aluminum
plate above the amp (normally installed upside down, heatsink pointing
up). This configuration works, but is hard to service and takes an
inordinate amount of horizontal surface space which is in short supply
in the Jitney. I've been pondering various ideas on how to (a) get the
amps mounted vertically, on the walls of the van and (b) combining the
heat sinks somehow.

One idea which appeals to me is mounting the amps on a cold plate and
liquid cooling. Looking around for cold plates, the main source for
non-laboratory coldplates is the beverage industry .. when the beer
comes out of the tap cold it's not because they chill the barrel, but
rather the beer goes through an aluminum plate which has stainless
steel tubing embedded and is submerged in a box full of ice (or
refrigerated mechanically). Asking around, I managed to locate a
single-pass beer coldplate measuring approximately 10" x 15" and about
1.5 inches think (weighs 10# !). I dismounted a couple of my DL2AM
amps and test fit on the plate, and it appears that they fit just
fine. I might find a place to machine the top surface .. it's pretty
flat but not perfectly, though probably flat enough that with liberal
use of heat-conductive  paste I think they'd work fine.

Just curious if anyone else has tried this route ..

de w1rt/john