Yellowstone National Park

Monitoring all of the services at Yellowstone National Park will require loading in several sources (inside and outside of the park) into your scanner. Various Federal, State, County and local agencies may be operating near the park.

Yellowstone National Park is an exclusive federal jurisdiction and state/local agencies do not have any jurisdiction in the park.

Yellowstone National Park Websites

Yellowstone National Park - National Park Service website

Secret Yellowstone

Agency Operations

Agencies that may be operating near the park include

Wyoming, Montana and Idaho Highway Patrols

West Yellowstone, Montana PD

Gallatin County Sheriff

Park County, WY Sheriff

Park County, MT Sheriff

Wyoming, Montana and Idaho Game Wardens & Brand Inspectors

U.S. Forest Service

Bureau of Land Management

Wyoming State Forestry

These federal agencies have jurisdiction in the park

FBI - investigates major crime in the park

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) - investigates major structural fires, assists with the regulation of conscessioner's sales of liquor and tobacco.

U.S. Marshals Service - assists with the transportation and housing of prisoners, court operations and serving federal warrants.

Repeaters

All park repeaters are 20 watt solar powered repeaters and are capable of analog and P25 digital operation. Protection rangers have the ability to transmit encrypted when needed but generally operate in the clear. All park employees are issued radios for safety.

Listings are shown as: Repeater Output/Repeater Input. All repeaters transmit the input tone on the output frequency.

North Net

North - 166.3250/166.9250 CTCSS 167.9 - NAC 167.
- Located on Mt. Washburn and covers the northern mountains to Mammoth, Canyon Tower, and portions of the north and northeast area of the park.

Lamar Net

Lamar - 166.3750/166.9750 CTCSS 192.8 - NAC 192.
- Most likely on Mt. Washburn, south of Tower & north of Canyon Village. Covers Lamar and northeast portions of the park.

Druid Peak - 166.3750/166.9750 CTCSS ? - NAC 192.
- Located east of the Larmar Ranger Station and due north of the southernmost point on the road from Mammoth to Cooke City. This is a new repeater installed late 2014 or early 2015. This could be a relocation of the repeater on Mt. Washburn, in which case the CTCSS tone and NAC would be the same as the "Larmar" repeater above. This is the most likely scenario. It could also be an addition to the net, in which case the CTCSS tone and NAC need to be determined.

Cooke - 166.3750/166.9750 CTCSS 179.9 - NAC 179.
- Located on Henderson Mtn. on the Gallatin National Forest north of Cooke City. Covers the northeast portion of the park.

West Net

Mt. Holmes - 166.8750/169.4000 CTCSS 146.2 - NAC 146.
- Center of the northwest portion of the park. Covers Mammoth & northwest portions of the park, including the park segment of Highway 191.

West - 166.8750/169.4000 CTCSS 136.5 - NAC 136.
- Located on Purple Mtn., due north of Madison Junction. Covers the Norris, Madison Junction, Old Faithful & western portions of the park.

South Net

Top Notch Pk. -165.5875/164.8000 CTCSS 118.8 - NAC 118.
- West of East Entrance. Covers the East Entrance to Sylvan Pass and the southeastern portions of the park..

South - 165.5875/164.8000 CTCSS 110.9 - NAC 110.
- Located on Mt. Sheridan, south of Grant Village & north of South Entrance. Covers Grant Village, West Thumb, Lake, Bridge Bay, Fishing Bridge, Thorofare & most of the southern portions of the park.

Bechler - 165.5875/164.8000 CTCSS 127.3 - NAC 127.
- Located on Survey Peak, southeast of the Bechler Ranger Station south of the southern park boundary in Grand Teton National Park. Covers the Bechler, southwestern, and south boundary portions of the park.

NOTE: Mt. Sheridan & Top Notch are normally simulcasting each other via a 24/7 patch setup to provide coverage of the southern and southeastern portions of the park

No single repeater covers all of the park or in some cases, a large area. When operational needs require communications between nets, some repeaters on different nets can be linked.

Other Radio Frequencies Used in the Park

National Park Service

172.5000 PL 103.5 - NAC 103. Fire Cache Operations

167.1500/163.1250 Scene of Action. Radios are programmed for access to five different repeaters, some are already in place and others are probably portable. Portable repeaters use the following CTCSS tones: 206.5, 218.1 and 229.1.

168.6500 PL 110.9 National Flight Following. Digital mode not used on this frequency.

168.3500 Common tactical channel to coordinate with Grand Teton & John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway.

168.6125 PL 136.5. Common federal government tactical used in most National Parks.

Non-NPS Federal Agency in Park

171.3625 Federal Highway Administration.

Commercial or Business Frequency Use

463.4500 Mt. Washburn Repeater. Concessioners including Delaware North and the Yellowstone Park Service Stations. The Yellowstone Communications Center "700" can work this frequency.

463.4500 Xanterra Corporation Transportation. (NOTE: 10/6/2019 - Appears to have moved to Teton Communications NXDN system)
461.5125 PL 103.5 Xanterra Corporation Housekeeping.
461.7375 PL 103.5 Xanterra Corporation Maint./Security.
463.9875 PL 151.4 Xanterra Corporation Employee Housing.

160.2000 PL 100.0 Yellowstone Association - conducts tours and sells books, maps and other materials.

464.5000 PL 131.8 Wolf & wildlife watchers. Used mostly in Lamar and Hayden Valley to coordinate wildlife sightings.
464.5500 PL 229.1 Secondary channel for wolf & wildlife watchers.

Additional Frequencies

Geyser Gazers FRS/GMRS CH. 4-5 (462.63750 PL 79.7)

Yellowstone Radio systems (This link appears to redirect to a SCAM website. Dead? Updated Sept 1st, 2022)

Park Unit Designators

First digit:

1: Park Superintendent's and headquarters staff including 2 deputy superintendents; chiefs of the divisions of interpretation, maintenance, resource and visitor protection; and administrative functions.

2,3,4: Interpretive rangers, research, resource management (foresters, forestry crews, biologists, historians, archaeologists, geologists, air & water quality specialists, wilderness managers) with 2 being the north district, 3 the east district and 4 the south district. Most of these people use a three number designator with the second number representing functions. Some functions have more than ten positions so the numbers may be followed by the persons last name. Example: "462 Smith" is a employee with the last name of Smith who works for 462. The Interpretive Division has different geographical districts than protection and maintenance with those being: West (Grant, Madison, Lake and Old Faithful) and North (Canyon, Mammoth and Norris).

5, 6, and 7: Division of Resource and Visitor Protection. Protection includes these functions: law enforcement, structural/wildland fire protection, EMS and search and rescue. The first number of protection ranger's designators are issued according to the area of the general area of the park they work in with 5 for north, 6 for east and 7 for south.

9: Maintenance Division. This includes roads, trails and building maintenance; and water/waste water, solid waste, fleet maintenance, horse/mule care, crafts, carpentry, painting, plumbing, electrical; boardwalk and trail maintenance. It is unknown how each person is identified. This division's districts are: North, Tower, Beartooth, Canyon, Lake, Grant and West. Each district has a combination of the trades to handle what exists in each district.

700 Series: Base stations. This is derived from the callsign of the park, "KOF700." 700 is the dispatcher. The most often used functional base stations are:
- 700 Bravo= Backcountry Desk,
- 700 Charlie= Chief Ranger's Office
- 700 Echo= Chief of Maintenance Office
- 700 Fox= Fire Management Desk
- 700 Lima= Law Enforcement Desk
- 700 November= Chief of Interpretation Office
- 700 Sierra= Park Superintendent's Office.
- 701 and up are base stations such as ranger stations, entrance stations, and the like. The Park Service is moving away from using these in favor of their names, i.e. "West Entrance" "instead of 702, "Bechler Ranger Station" or just "Bechler" instead of 731. One that may still be in use is "702 Papa," which is the West Yellowstone PD. The stations can sign off using their callsign, e.g. the Bechler Ranger Station would sign off as "KOF731."

Following the numbers 5, 6 and 7, protection rangers have the the following alpha designators for the district they are assigned.

Alpha - NPS special agents, US Marshals, Court Security, Administration.

Bravo - Back country Law Enforcement Officers (LEOs).

Charlie - Canyon District (Norris) - central portion of park.

Delta - Northeast Subdistrict - eastern portion of the Larmar River District, including Northeast Entrance.

Echo - East Subdistrict - eastern portion of the Lake District, including East Entrance.

Fox or Foxtrot - Fishing Bridge based units in the west portion of the Lake District.

Golf - Grant Subdistrict - northern portion of the Snake River District.

Hotel - Mammoth District - north central portion of park, including headquarters area & North Entrance.

Juliet - Jail Staff

Kilo - Lamar River District (Northeast/Tower) - northeast portion of park.

Lima - Lake District (East) - southeast portion of park.

Mike - Madison Junction based units in the northern portion of the Old Faithful District

November - Norris Subdistrict - western portion of the Canyon District.

Oscar - Old Faithful District - west central portion of park.

Romeo - Roosevelt based units in the western portion of the Lamar River District.

Sierra - Snake River District (Grant) - south central portion of park, including South Entrance.

Tango - Tower Subdistrict - western portion of the Larmar River District.

Whiskey - West District - western portion of park, including all of the park's western boundary & West Entrance.

- - - - Sometime during 2020 the Law Enforcement Ranger Districts were consolidated. During 2021 they assumed new radio designators as follows.

All Law Enforcement Officers (Rangers) now have "5" designators. Patrol districts have been combined as follows.

North District ("November") now comprises the old Mammoth ("Hotel") and Northeast/Tower ("Delta") districts. "5November1" is the head LEO Ranger for this district.

Lake District ("Lima") now comprises the old Lake ("Lima"), Canyon ("Charlie"), and South ("Sierra") districts. "5Lima1" is the head LEO Ranger for this district.

West District ("Whiskey") now comprises the old West ("Whiskey"), and Old Faithful ("Oscar") districts. "5Whiskey1" is the head LEO Ranger for this district. *****

The alpha character is followed by two numbers that indicate the position the ranger holds:

10 District Ranger

11 Deputy District Ranger

12 Supervisory Ranger (shift supervisor)

13 Backcountry Supervisory Ranger

14-20 Permanent field rangers

30 Supervisory Seasonal Ranger

31-40 Seasonal field rangers

units ending in “Hotel” are helicopters. “4BravoHotel” is the southern backcountry helicopter. (Heard during SAR call)

Examples: 5C10 district ranger of the Canyon District, 6O16 permanent field ranger on the Old Faithful District, 7G31 seasonal field ranger on the Grant Subdistrict of the Snake River District.

External Links

YellowstoneWiki.com: Radio System

Yellowstone National Park

From The RadioReference Wiki

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