Results are presented from experiments carried out at the NRL X‐band magnicon facility on a two‐channel X‐band active rf pulse compressor that employs plasma switches. Evidence is shown to validate the basic goals of the project, which include: simultaneous firing of plasma switches in both channels of the rf circuit, operation at high power of a quasi‐optical 3‐dB hybrid directional coupler, coherent superposition of rf compressed pulses from both channels, and stable operation of the X‐band magnicon directly into the resonant load presented by the rf pulse compressor. For incident 1.2‐&mgr;sec pulses in the range 0.63–1.35 MW, compressed pulses of 5.7–11.3 MW were obtained in a first experimental campaign, corresponding to power gain ratios of 8.3–9.3. Following improvements in the experimental arrangement, 1.2‐&mgr;sec pulses of 5.0 MW could be applied during a second campaign, yielding compressed pulses up to 53 MW peak power with power gain ratios up to 10.4. © 2003 American Institute of Physics