JOB AID: BEECN Drill

Last update:

2024.01.06

This job aid guides PBEM staff and volunteers through a routine drill of the BEECN system. PBEM, in partnership with Multco ARES and BEECN/NET volunteers, conduct these drills three or four times a year to confirm functionality of the BEECN system.

Background

Main article: BEECN Program Organization

The Basic Earthquake Emergency Communication Nodes program (BEECN) is an emergency radio communications flagship program of the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management. This Job Aid assumes that the reader is familiar with the BEECN system already.

The BEECN system includes over 80 individual resources (BEECN UHF radios and fire station VHF radios). PBEM policy is to test all radios at least once a year. Though PBEM can and has exercised the entire system in a single exercise, best practice suggests three or four exercises a year with 25 resources involved in each exercise.

Setting up the hotline

PBEM will set up an exercise hotline in the message center room; the number is published to all volunteers as 503-823-2323. When PBEM personnel arrive for the exercise, one of their first tasks should be to establish the hotline. The purpose of the hotline is to reach PBEM and the radio room via phone if a problem in the field prevents a volunteer from checking in via radio. It is a critical component to the exercise; without it, exercise supervisors risk cutting volunteers off from the exercise and will also not detect the problems causing the comms failure in the first place. Take the following steps to establish the hotline:

1. Best practice is to dedicate the computer station right next to the radio room to the hotline (see photo at left). The phone at this station is labeled MESSAGE CENTER #2.
2. Pick up the handset and press the button to the left of "Login". On the keypad, punch in 3 2 6 9 7. You should hear two beeps. Hang up the phone.
3. On the phone's screen, make sure "Auto In" is highlighted and the light on the button near it is green; if it is not, press the button to the right of "Auto In". The line should now be active. Test the line by calling 503-823-2323 from a different phone.
4. Any time a call is completed, make sure the phone does not default into "AuxWork". If it's in "AuxWork", the line is not enabled to receive calls. Correct this by again pressing the button the right of "Auto In".

Deactivating the hotline

At the end of the exercise, pick up the handset and press the button to the left of "Logout". You should hear two beeps. Hand up the phone. The station is now logged out.