The National Park Service operates and maintains conventional land mobile radio (LMR) communications systems that operate in the authorized Federal Government frequency band of 162-174MHz. This particular frequency band is administered by the National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) and frequency assignment are processed and obtain through the National Park Service's Radio Program Division and Communications Security Division and the Department of the Interior's Radio Program and Spectrum Management Office. All frequencies utilized by the National Park Service for its day-to-day public safety, law enforcement, security, and emergency management missions are exempt from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The conventional LMR systems utilized by the NPS are compliant with the Telecommunications Industry Association standard TIA-102, also known as the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials Project 25 (P-25) standard. These systems are also compliant with the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS-197) Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Where radio encryption is deployed, the radio encryption software is backwards compatible and capable of communicating with cooperators using the older Digital Encryption Standards (DES) encryption algorithm. Some park units have aeronautical mobile (aviation) and maritime mobile (marine) radio communications capabilities.
The NPS practices the use of Federal Interoperability channels for emergency response missions. To obtain additional information and/or coordinate radio communications capabilities for a specific park unit please contact the specific park unit's radio coordinator.
Last updated: June 30, 2017