BEECN Program Organization

BEECN Guidelines

Introduction

BEECN Program Organization

BEECN Sites

BEECN Volunteers

BEECN Caches

Operations at BEECN Sites

Operations at Fire Stations

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This section outlines the structure, management, and responsibilities associated with the BEECN (Basic Earthquake Emergency Communication Node) program.

Definitions and Acronyms

Being that we are both a government and emergency management organization, we use a whole lotta jargon (WLJ). The table below will help volunteers navigate it.

Term/Acronym	Meaning
Amateur radio	Also known as HAM radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages. The BEECN system relies on use of amateur radio to pass messages from the neighborhood level to the EOC.
ARO	"Amateur Radio Operator". These are volunteers who are amateur radio licensed and trained to operate the Orange Kits at fire stations. See: VSF 02.02: Fire Station HAM.
BEECN Cache Storage Location	The confidential location where a BEECN cache is secured. Only PBEM staff and volunteers assigned to a specific cache should know where a cache is secured and how to access it; this information is never shared with the public.
BEECN Coordinator	Abbreviated as "BC". A BEECN Volunteer who serves as the "Blue Skies" leader of a BEECN Cohort. See: VSF 14.01.02: BEECN Coordinator.
BEECN Resource	Any component piece of the BEECN system crucial to its function. This might include a BEECN volunteer, a cache, a fire station, or a site.
BEECN Site	The physical location where the general public is encouraged to convene after an earthquake if they need the services of the BEECN system. These locations are published on public maps. This is often not the same as the BEECN Cache Storage Location.
BEECN Volunteer	A volunteer trained and qualified to operate a handheld BEECN radio, and assigned to a specific BEECN resource and apprised of how to set it up and operate it. See: VSF 14.01.01: BEECN Volunteer.
Blue Skies	In the context of emergency management, "blue skies" refers to a period of calm, when there are no active emergencies and the focus is primarily on preparation, prevention, and risk reduction, essentially signifying a "clear" situation with no immediate threats, like a clear blue sky.
Cache	A collection of BEECN equipment secured in a confidential location. See: BEECN Caches.
Cohort	A team of BEECN Volunteers assigned to maintain and operate a specific BEECN resource, usually a cache or at a fire station.
Demobilization	Emergency management demobilization operations are the process of releasing incident responders and resources once the incident response objectives have been met.
EOC	"Emergency Operations Center". The physical location from where City of Portland government operates in response to an emergency. The EOC includes a radio room where BEECN messages are received and sent from. See: PBEM Emergency Operations Center.
Fire Station Volunteer	A non-ARO BEECN Volunteer who reports to a fire station in order to assist the station's ARO and relay radio traffic. See: VSF 14.01.04: Fire Station UHF Volunteer.
HAM	🥩 A volunteer trained and licensed to operate amateur radio equipment. All AROs are HAMs, but not all HAMs are AROs.
ICS	"Incident Command System". The framework used in disaster response to organize the response effort. BEECN Volunteers are encouraged, but not required, to train in basic ICS.
Operational Period	An operational period in emergency management is a set time frame for carrying out a specific set of actions. In BEECN, a single operational period is divided into two eight-hour periods: Shift A, which runs from 0600 to 1400, and Shift B, which runs from 1400 - 2200 each day. A single incident may run for many operational periods.
Orange Kit	A VHF HAM radio kit present at every PF&R fire station and available for use by AROs. See: Orange Kits.
PBEM	"Portland Bureau of Emergency Management". This is the City of Portland government agency that manages the BEECN program.
PF&R	"Portland Fire & Rescue".
Radio Room	The area inside the EOC dedicated to managing radio traffic between neighborhoods and City of Portland government in the aftermath of a disaster.
Relay	The BEECN Resource that intervenes between a BEECN and the EOC. In nearly all cases, the relay will be a fire station. Each BEECN has a Primary Relay and a Backup Relay.
Secure and Clear	Verb or adjective; the act or status of returning a BEECN resource (such as a cache) to its location and locking it up, and then volunteers going home.
Shift One	The very first shift of a BEECN activation. Shift One could fall to Shift A or Shift B. See: Shift One.
UHF	"Ultra high frequency". The handheld BEECN radios operate on commercial-band UHF frequencies. Also the title of one of the best comedies ever made.
VHF	"Very high frequency". The Orange Kits at fire stations operate on VHF frequencies.

BEECN and PBEM

Guidelines governing the relationship between PBEM and the BEECN program:

1. The BEECN program is sited in and managed by the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM) with participation from Portland Fire & Rescue (PF&R).
2. PBEM has sole authority to determine BEECN volunteer membership and who is responsible for maintaining and deploying a BEECN.
3. When activated, BEECN volunteers defer to the authority of any present emergency response personnel (such as police, fire, or EMS personnel), members of the military, emergency managers associated with a City of Portland bureau (e.g. the Portland Water Bureau), or staff from PBEM.
4. The PBEM Bureau Director may delegate responsibilities for the BEECN program to a designee.
5. All routine communications regarding BEECN program business between volunteers, city employees, and PBEM will be directed to staff at PBEM assigned to manage BEECN.

Responsibilities of PBEM to the BEECN Program

PBEM has many responsibilities to the BEECN program and they are woven throughout these BEECN Guidelines. The following subsection does not include all of PBEM’s responsibilities to the BEECN program, but indicates those most salient. PBEM will:

1. Provide training to designated BEECN volunteers that will instruct them on safe and effective practices and procedures to deploy the BEECN following an earthquake.
2. Provide BEECN exercise and drill opportunities to keep volunteers confident and competent in the skills needed to deploy in the event of a disaster.
3. Provide a point of contact at PBEM who responds to the needs and inquiries of BEECN volunteers in a reasonably timely, professional, and relevant manner.
4. Ensure that volunteers are appropriately indemnified for their service to the community.
5. Ensure that caches and cache supplies and equipment are replenished and replaced as needed and as resources permit; and, ensure that caches receive maintenance as required.
6. Be responsible for and maintain Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with property owners who host BEECN caches.

City Employees and BEECNs

The City of Portland may assign a City of Portland employee to a BEECN for drills and/or deployment. A city employee is still considered a city employee while undertaking responsibilities to the BEECN program, and the city employee is at no time considered a “BEECN volunteer”.

Elements of a BEECN

A BEECN consists of three essential elements: the site, the equipment cache, and the assigned volunteers.

1. The BEECN site is the geographical location where Portlanders are encouraged to go 24 to 48 hours following an earthquake. For example: school grounds, a park, or a parking lot. These are the sites that appear on published BEECN maps.
2. The BEECN equipment cache associated with the site is located within a five block radius of the BEECN site. It contains all the equipment that volunteers need to deploy the BEECN.
3. BEECN volunteers are the personnel associated with a BEECN and are trained to deploy the BEECN program 24 to 48 hours following an earthquake. It takes a minimum of two volunteers to operate a BEECN.

Similarly, fire station resources in the BEECN system are broken into three elements:

1. The fire station, as the name implies, is the Portland Fire & Rescue facility where the VHF Orange "Go-Kit" is stored. Every fire station also has an antenna on its roof that hooks up to the VHF kit.
2. The Orange "Go-Kit" is the amateur radio set operators use to communicate with the radio room in the EOC. Each Orange Kit also includes a handheld UHF radio that can receive radio traffic from nearby BEECNs.
3. There are two types of fire station volunteers. There are UHF handheld radio operators, who operate the same push-to-talk radio that BEECN volunteers do. They pass BEECN messages to the HAM radio volunteers, who then relay those messages to the EOC.