NEWINGTON, CT, May 9, 2006--A Mississippi radio amateur and broadcaster who braved the fury of Hurricane Katrina to keep his ham radio club's low-power FM (LPFM) broadcast station WQRZ-LP on the air was one of three recipients to receive the Small Business Administration (SBA) Phoenix Award. The SBA honored ARRL Member Brice Phillips, KB5MPW, of Bay Saint Louis, for "Outstanding Contributions to Disaster Recovery by a Volunteer." Since 1998, the Phoenix Award has been presented to "those who display courage, resourcefulness and tenacity in the aftermath of a disaster, while contributing to the rebuilding of their communities."
Brice Phillips, KB5MPW

"We are proud to be the first Amateur Radio organization-owned broadcast facility in the US--and proud Mississippians--to serve our state and as a model to the country as the first broadcast station to be attached to an emergency operations center," Phillips says. He notes that the station lost everything to the storm except "our lives and our commitment to the community."

Owned and operated by the Hancock County Amateur Radio Association, WQRZ-LP, at 103.5 on the FM dial, was constructed and is operated by volunteers with disabilities. Before Hurricane Katrina hit, Phillips and WQRZ-LP Program Director Christine Stach, KC5RIC, relocated the radio station from a small shed next to the house they shared in Waveland to the Hancock County Emergency Operations Center (EOC), which was forced to move twice.

As the storm surge waters reached the building's second level, Phillips braved the elements and rigged car batteries to power the station's broadcasts of search-and-rescue and other emergency information. WQRZ was one of only four of the more than three dozen Gulf Coast radio stations--and the only one in Hancock County--to stay on the air during the early days after Katrina struck. Brice also was among the many radio amateurs providing emergency communication in the storm-stricken region. Their house flattened, Phillips and Stach have been living in a mobile home.

Phillips received his award in Washington, DC, during SBA National Small Business Week in mid-April. SBA Administrator Hector Barreto described the Phoenix Award as an "acknowledgement of heroic efforts and a token of appreciation for the support of the physical and economic recovery efforts in the Gulf Coast and Florida." He went on to say that all three recipients "displayed tremendous courage and selflessness in the midst of the most devastating disasters in US history."


Brice Phillips, KB5MPW, in yellow T-shirt,
at work in WQRZ-LP's makeshift studio on Day 2 of the Katrina relief effort.

The FCC granted WQRZ-LP an emergency waiver to temporarily raise its transmitting power from 100 W to 1300 W to increase its range in order to better serve the public with emergency news and information. Harris Corporation provided a transmitter, studio equipment and an antenna to assist. The State of Florida donated an emergency generator to keep the small, but vital, radio outlet on the air should power fail.

FEMA distributed 3000 FM radios to Hancock County storm survivors so they could tune to WQRZ-LP and learn where to get food, water, ice, tarpaulins, help from the Red Cross and The Salvation Army and other survival assistance.

The subject of a November 2005 report on MSNBC, WQRZ-LP serves the Bay Saint Louis, Waveland, Diamondhead and Kiln areas of Mississippi. Normally solar-powered, the LPFM community station was the brainchild of Phillips, 39, and Stach, 34, who has MS. Other Amateur Radio operators who volunteer with the non-commercial station include Gary Sessums, KC5QCN, Sara Allen, KI4KMI, and Gary Minker, KC4UDZ.


Phillips (right) on the air last October.

"We are all truly blessed to be survivors--never victims--and honored to be allowed the ability to serve my community," Phillips said. "I couldn't have done it without the support from everyone."

WQRZ-LP's licensee, the Hancock County Amateur Radio Association, is a non-profit IRS 501(c)(3) organization. The station invites contributions to help it rebuild to WQRZ-LP, POB 1145, Kiln, MS 39556-1145. Contact the station for more information.