A hybrid RF-acoustic relay is provided where some but not all of the incident RF power is rectified to power the relay and, optionally, to provide power for further link features. The remaining fraction of the incident RF power is used to directly drive an acoustic transceiver array in communication with one or more acoustically powered nodes. In this manner, power, control and communication can be efficiently provided to acoustically powered nodes even in situations where an RF link or an acoustic link would perform poorly.