Home / Uses / Power for a hilltop radio repeater site

Keeping the repeater on air when the hill is cut off

Hilltop repeaters link farm radios, search and rescue teams and volunteer services across rugged country. When a storm hits, they matter more than ever. This page looks at long-duration power for them.

Small loads, long gaps

A single VHF repeater draws very little. A shared hilltop site with several repeaters for different groups, a link radio, a weather station and perhaps a camera can still sit well under 15 kW, but it needs that power continuously and often has no road access in winter. The real challenge is not the size of the load, it is lasting through days of outage without a refuelling trip up the hill.

What it would keep running

VHF and UHF repeaters
Inter-site link radios
Site monitoring and alarms
Weather sensors
Hut lighting for technicians

Weeks in a tank

Hydrogen stored at 30 bar or less keeps for weeks without losing charge. A ridge site exposed to wind can carry a turbine that feeds the electrolyser whenever it blows, banking energy for calm spells. The battery and inverter give an instant switch-over, so radios never drop a transmission when the main supply fails.

For a single small repeater, honestly, a battery and a small local charger are usually enough, and a 15 kW system would be overkill. Hydrogen starts to make sense on busier shared sites where many services rely on the hill.

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.

Shared sites, shared decisions

Repeater sites are often shared between clubs, councils, emergency services and private users, each with their own equipment and rules. Any install would need all of them on board, and access agreements with the landowner. Round trip is 30% or less, so this is about uptime, not cheap power. The pilot would size storage to measured loads and the site's wind.

Questions

Is this sensible for one farm repeater?

Probably not. One repeater draws so little that a battery and small charger usually do the job for much less. The case for hydrogen is a shared site with several services and long periods without road access.

Can it charge from wind on the hilltop?

Yes, wind is one of its designed charging sources, and exposed ridges often have plenty. The turbine would need to cover the round trip losses of 30% or less, which a measured wind assessment would confirm before any install.

Will it cause radio interference?

There is no engine ignition noise, but any inverter and electronics need checking for interference near sensitive receivers. That would be tested on site during a pilot, alongside the site's existing equipment and its owners.

Elsewhere

Every use →

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