Fire/EMS paging on GMRS?

[WRQV528]

For a while I have noticed paging occurring on channel 5 (462.6625 MHz) in a nearby area. I never gave it too much thought, but after weakly receiving a page on channel 19 (462.6500 MHz) in the same area last night, I am now very curious...

Are these agencies relying on GMRS for paging? Have they or a civilian set-up a (maybe one-way?) crossband repeater of sorts? In any case, why? What is the meaning of this?

[Radioguy7268]

If it is Fire/EMS voice paging (with tones) - then I would be betting that some nearby Volunteer has put up a budget cross-band repeater to send out their county dispatch/tones on an FRS channel. Do you ever hear voice replies on that same channel? Or, does it seem to all be one-way traffic?

[WRQV528]

Just now, Radioguy7268 said:

Do you ever hear voice replies on that same channel? Or, does it seem to all be one-way traffic?

To my knowledge it is only one-way traffic; I have never heard any follow-up transmissions in the moments after a page.

[wrci350]

Couple questions:  Where are you when you hear these pages, and what radio(s) are you using?

[gortex2]

What radio are you using to hear the said tones ? I highly doubt a county would be on GMRS. What location is this ? 

[WRQI583]

Way back when FRS first came about someone in my home state used to do this but it was on FRS 1 (462.5625). It was a strong transmitter because it was heard all over a county and a bit beyond that. From what I was told, someone had set it up for the junior volunteer fire fighters because they weren't allowed pagers. Its not hard. Out of band dual band ham radio and set the frequencies and let her rip. 45 watts on UHF on a good antenna at a high location and you are no different than some of the stuff operating with public safety. For those who don't know better, it confuses them.

[KAF6045]

4 hours ago, WRQI583 said:

Way back when FRS first came about someone in my home state used to do this but it was on FRS 1 (462.5625). It was a strong transmitter because it was heard all over a county and a bit beyond that. From what I was told, someone had set it up for the junior volunteer fire fighters because they weren't allowed pagers. Its not hard. Out of band dual band ham radio and set the frequencies and let her rip. 45 watts on UHF on a good antenna at a high location and you are no different than some of the stuff operating with public safety. For those who don't know better, it confuses them.

462.5625 predates FRS. It is one of the original GMRS interstitial frequencies (so called because they fall into the "gap" between the GMRS primary frequencies). As such, even back then, it was limited to 5W power to be legal and not interfere with the primary channels.

467.5625 was an FRS frequency, and limited to 0.5W as the frequency is an interstitial of the repeater input channels.

Furthermore, back then, GMRS licenses could belong to an organization or business. They could have legally obtained a license for two of the primary channels (one had to specify which two channels [pairs for repeater usage] they wished to be licensed for -- most radios only supplied a toggle switch for "a" or "b" channel). Using a primary channel they'd have been legal at up to 50W output at the radio -- and with good antennas maybe achieve 200W ERP.