Home / Uses / Keeping a community radio station on air

When local radio is the only news getting through

When phones and internet fail, battery radios still work, as long as the station is on air. This page looks at keeping a small community radio studio and its transmitter running through an outage.

Studio and transmitter

A small community station runs a studio with a mixing desk, microphones, computers and a playout system, plus a studio to transmitter link and the transmitter itself, often on a hill. The studio loads are small. A low-power community transmitter is modest too. Together they are well within 15 kW, though a larger transmitter site would need its own assessment.

What it would keep running

Studio desk and microphones
Playout computers
Studio to transmitter link
Transmitter within size
Studio lighting and heat

No dead air on the switch-over

Dead air is the worst sound in radio. With the battery and hybrid inverter in UPS mode, the switch-over is instant, so the playout computer does not reboot and the presenter does not lose the microphone mid sentence. The fuel cell then runs from stored hydrogen, with no generator noise bleeding into an open microphone.

If the transmitter sits on a separate hilltop site, that site needs its own backup. The same system type could serve it, or a smaller battery may be enough depending on the transmitter's power. The pilot would look at both ends of the chain.

How it works →

The H2OME loop: an electrolyser splits water into hydrogen, the hydrogen is stored in a tank for weeks, a fuel cell turns it into electricity for your home, and the water returns to the loop.

On air for days

Hydrogen stored at 30 bar or less keeps for weeks without losing charge, so a station can carry on broadcasting through a long outage with no fuel runs. It charges on off-peak power, wind or micro-hydro. Round trip efficiency is 30% or less, so it is standby power. For a station that becomes a district's lifeline, that trade is easy to justify.

Questions

Can it run our hilltop transmitter too?

If the transmitter is at the studio, yes, within 15 kW. If it is on a separate hilltop, that site needs its own supply. A small transmitter might only need a battery; a larger one could suit a system of its own.

Will there be a blip on air at the switch-over?

No. The battery and inverter run in UPS mode, so the switch-over is instant. Studio equipment and the playout system keep running without a reboot, and listeners should hear nothing unusual.

Is it noisy near the studio?

There is no engine, so nothing rumbles through the walls. Fans and pumps hum quietly, and the unit would be sited outside, away from the studio's microphones, in a ventilated enclosure.

Elsewhere

Every use →

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