Yellowstone Frequencies

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W0JJK

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I have searched for current freq used at Yellowstone Nat Park. Found a couple threads but most were about 2 years old.

Anyone have a list of current ones, I will be headed out there in a couple weeks.



thanks
 

dirtfinder

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Theses maybe old and out of date:

Group 1 - Primary
Mobile Rx Tx CTCSS
Channel 1 166.375 166.375 cs North area simplex
Channel 2 166.375 166.975 cs North area repeater
Channel 3 165.5875 165.5875 cs South areas simplex
Channel 4 165.5875 164.800 cs South areas repeater
Channel 5 167.150 167.150 cs Special (Scene of Action)
Channel 6 167.150 163.125 cs SOA Repeater
Channel 7 166.875 166.875 136.5 West Simplex
Channel 8 166.875 169.400 136.5 Fire Hole Repeater
Channel 9 166.875 169.400 123.0 West Repeater (136.5 Out)
Channel 10 172.500 172.500 CS Fire Cache
Channel 11 171.675 171.675 CS Grand Teton Ch 1
Channel 12 171.675 172.425 CS Grand Teton Ch 2
Channel 13 164.825 164.125 167.9 Gallatin National Forest
Channel 14 168.350 168.350 CS Common
166.375 167.025? ?Listed as W Yellowstone DOI'95
168.650 168.650 cs Air Net

and also a link to lighting leos website for yellowstone: http://www.scanwyoming.vcn.com/Yellowstone.html
 
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icom1020

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I was there in Sept, there was limited P25 use, but most of the comms were analog.

I didn't hear anything on the SOA channels The repeaters around W Yellowstone and Mammoth were active. I would scan the 164-168 segment as I heard a repeater around 167 mhz driving towards Jackson with traffic about campsite checks, which could of been FS or Grand Teton but didn't determine who it was.
 

W0JJK

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I have the Astro Spectra and Astro Saber so I will put them as Mixed mode.

Thanks
 

icom1020

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oh, good idea! When I get tired of my MTS2000 maybe I'll upgrade. The rangers in Y'stone carry Racals.
 

W0JJK

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A friend of mine is a ranger at Mammoth for the second year. The Racal feels like a nice radio, if I didn't have the Astro stuff, I might opt for one of them.
 

kib669

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I just got back from Yellowstone and I have a few updates.

166.325 166.325 167.9 North area simplex
166.325 166.975 167.9 North area repeater
165.5875 165.5875 110.9 South areas simplex
165.5875 164.800 110.9 South areas repeater
172.500 172.500 103.5 Fire Cache
166.375 166.375 192.8 Lamar District

There was a fair amount of P-25 activity. I did not have a capable scanner, but since I did not hear very much law enforcement in the analog mode, I assume they were the primary user.


Theses maybe old and out of date:

Group 1 - Primary
Mobile Rx Tx CTCSS
Channel 1 166.375 166.375 cs North area simplex
Channel 2 166.375 166.975 cs North area repeater
Channel 3 165.5875 165.5875 cs South areas simplex
Channel 4 165.5875 164.800 cs South areas repeater
Channel 5 167.150 167.150 cs Special (Scene of Action)
Channel 6 167.150 163.125 cs SOA Repeater
Channel 7 166.875 166.875 136.5 West Simplex
Channel 8 166.875 169.400 136.5 Fire Hole Repeater
Channel 9 166.875 169.400 123.0 West Repeater (136.5 Out)
Channel 10 172.500 172.500 CS Fire Cache
Channel 11 171.675 171.675 CS Grand Teton Ch 1
Channel 12 171.675 172.425 CS Grand Teton Ch 2
Channel 13 164.825 164.125 167.9 Gallatin National Forest
Channel 14 168.350 168.350 CS Common
166.375 167.025? ?Listed as W Yellowstone DOI'95
168.650 168.650 cs Air Net

and also a link to lighting leos website for yellowstone: Lightning Leo's Yellowstone National Park Frequency Guide
 

SCPD

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Thanks for the update. I would like to get back there, I haven't been since I was on the fires in 1988. I would like to poke around east of Island Park along the Targhee NF/Yellowstone NP boundary where I spent the majority of my 5 weeks on the North Fork Fire.

Do you know where the north and south repeaters are located? How about the one labeled "West Repeater?" I'm assuming that the scene of action repeater listing is for a portable repeater, but don't know this for sure. Any observations there?
 

theaton

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Yellowstone National Park

Thanks. I took the liberty of updating a few details in the DB based on your post (http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?aid=1908). Your observations are consistent with what I heard from Gannett Peak a few weeks ago. Let me know if the P25 mode needs changing on any entry.

-Tim

I just got back from Yellowstone and I have a few updates.

166.325 166.325 167.9 North area simplex
166.325 166.975 167.9 North area repeater
165.5875 165.5875 110.9 South areas simplex
165.5875 164.800 110.9 South areas repeater
172.500 172.500 103.5 Fire Cache
166.375 166.375 192.8 Lamar District

There was a fair amount of P-25 activity. I did not have a capable scanner, but since I did not hear very much law enforcement in the analog mode, I assume they were the primary user.
 

icom1020

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I was there 2 years ago, I heard a conversation in which one side was P25 and the other analog. They were discussing the county engineer checking on the sewer construction. Very important.
 

CqDx

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I just returned from Yellowstone two days ago and I can confirm that the PDF list is indeed current and correct. Most traffic are on the North/South/Holmes/Lamar and Top Notch Repeaters. I didn't catch any activities on SOA frequencies. A lot of Park Rangers still uses RACAL radios but the traffic heard on the repeaters are mostly law enforcement activities.

I did hear "Air Idaho" on the South frequency. The pilot was reporting he is leaving the area with a patient back to Idaho Falls so I am guessing the Air Ambulances in the area has the capability to transmit on the Yellowstone frequencies on a need basis.

For P25 stuff, I catched just two transmissions over the 5 days that I stayed in the park, one on the TAC frequency (167.1500) with a NAC of 207 and one on the North frequency (166.325) with a NAC of 167. Both are very short transmissions so I wouldn't count them as a "switchover"
 

SCPD

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I didn't notice this when I first looked at the N. Rockies Frequency Guide but 168.6125 is listed as "NPS Common." This is not an exclusive NPS allocation. This is one of the new (since narrow banding) federal government itinerant wide area simplex frequencies. 168.350 and 163.100 were formerly assigned in this manner, however, even though it has been nearly 5 years since the new frequencies have been assigned, and 163.100 and 168.350 are to be used as a repeater pair for portable, short term, repeaters, I continue to see these two frequencies listed as simplex tacticals.

In the past the NPS used 168.350 as a tactical in most parks. The N. Rockies Guide is the first I've seen that lists 168.6125 as a NPS common system wide frequency. People visiting National Parks should monitor 168.350 to see if some parks have not made the switch and 168.6125 to see if they have.

In California 168.350 is still listed as a tactical for Lassen NP, Yosemite NP and Whiskeytown NRA. Lassen also uses 163.100 for a tactical

EDIT I also noticed that most of the agencies listed used tones from the 16 tone list developed in Region 5 of the Forest Service as a standard tone list for all natural resource agencies. The only federal agency not using one of these 16 is Glacier National Park, for their Middle Fork Repeater. There are 16 NAC's that correspond with each of these tones also. All the Forest Service systems use one of the original R5 tones, and don't appear to need the additional 8. The original 8 were adopted by the Forest Service as a nationwide standard sometime in the 1990's. The BLM in Nevada began to switch to the original 8 in the 90's and then became stubborn, saying they didn't want the Forest Service, especially the USFS in California to tell them what tones to use, so they use many other tones. The spirit of interagency cooperation and standardization for less confusion didn't work for them.
 
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CqDx

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I monitored 168.35 and 168.6125 in both Zion and Bryce Canyon National Park in the last week for about 3 days each and didn't hear any activity, both analog or digital.

Like Exsmokey said, it could be a TAC frequency so range is very much limited (given the terrain and the size of both parks).
 

W0JJK

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They report to the Rangers when the geysers go off, so they estimate when they will go off again.It

We listened when I was up there 2008.
 

kf7yn

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I spend several weeks in Yellowstone every summer, I've gotten to know a few rangers and other employees. The only P25 users are Rangers and dispatch, few have a clue when to use it and when not to. Some leave it on, others don't or forget they had it enabled or disabled, hence the mixed analog/P25 conversations. Some don't like to use P25 because range suffers in the mountainous terrain, especially back country rangers who rely on HT's and are often in weak signal areas.

As has been pointed out, encryption is available but thankfully not used very often. Those who talk to rangers and dispatch such as campground hosts do not have P25 capability.

Some rangers occasionally use 153.905 "Gold" (also listed on page 6 of the Northern Rockies Frequency Guide 2009 PDF). This is an inter-agency frequency used by other law enforcement agencies in the area. Lake Rangers like this one for informal car to car stuff. YNP rangers talk to West Yellowstone PD on this freq as well. Don't forget to program this one.

A few other freqs heard the last few years:
171.3625 Federal Highways
160.200 Yellowstone Association
462.450 Lake Hospital
152.420 Xanterra campground hosts

Last but not least, monitor the Marine VHF channels, they get very interesting at times.

If you're in the Grant Village area in August, I monitor 146.520, 446.000 and MURS Ch 3.
 
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