The Friend Ships Ministries' sea-going relief ship Hope
Radio station: In September 2005, The Midland, West Texas-based Blessings For Obedience (BFO) Ministry installed a 250-watt FM radio transmitter aboard the Friend Ships Ministries' relief ship Hope in Gretna near New Orleans. BFO had been granted an FCC emergency radio station licence which, according to Kelly Coleman, BFO president and co-founder, was "the first licence ever issued for a temporary emergency-relief FM radio station."
The New Orleans station, Radio Hope, was bearing the call letters KS5XAE and operating 18 hours a day on 107.9 FM. BFO had provided 800 pocket-size, solar-powered radio receivers, tuned to 107.9 MHz to receive Radio Hope's broadcasts, for distribution to hurricane Katrina victims who were still in New Orleans and Gretna and who were without power to operate their own radios. The solar-powered radios had been donated to BFO by Galcom International and the Canadian government.
Kelly Coleman said that since it was set up in 1986, BFO has installed FM and AM radio broadcast stations for missionaries in remote areas of the world, such Central America, South America, Africa and elsewhere. BFO sent a radio engineer and equipment to build FM radio stations in Indonesia following the December 2004 tsunami and earthquake, Coleman said. (Source: Midland Reporter Telegram)
Location: In Gretna, near New Orleans (USA)