Yes, they were as a matter of fact on VHF low-band. It was a real Mickey Mouse Motorola setup. You had to punch a button on the control head in order to wake up the repeater before saying anything into the Mic. The line crew I was on had a joint primary metering project with one of United's crew, and of the linemen explained their radio setup. When skip was just right i was getting radio traffic from back East. Fun to track down the agencies. This was about 1997, and they went to a DMR system shortly thereafter. Thanks for the reply.
Mark