Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Safety Infrastructure topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Uxbridge committee weighs costly P25 radio upgrade and alternatives to fix portable radio dead spots
Summary
Committee members and public‑safety staff reviewed receiver failures and debated whether to plan a full P25 digital transition or pursue lower‑cost fixes (additional receive/voter sites, reposition tower antennas); members agreed to solicit vendor studies and evaluate the town hall tower for improved height and separation of antennas.
Town public‑safety leaders told the Traffic & Safety Committee they have experienced intermittent portable‑radio reception failures and are evaluating options to improve coverage.
Speaker 3 outlined a recent failure of a receive site that left officers' portable radios difficult to hear from the field and said the town's infrastructure is over 10 years old. "We lost one of our voting receivers and weren't aware that it was down and we had complaints from officers that they couldn't be heard in the field," Speaker 3 said. He added that many of the department's portables are P25‑capable but that licensing, repeater upgrades and tower work would likely be required to transition fully to P25.
Speakers discussed the tradeoffs. Vendor and staff comments noted P25 provides clearer digital audio and improved penetration in some cases but can result in sudden loss of signal when coverage is poor; analog can be staticky but sometimes allows partial reception. Speaker 7 (fire representative) said digital systems "go further at a 100% — meaning analog may travel further with static but P25 can be all or nothing," and emphasized that hearing a caller with static may be preferable to silence on a fireground.
Committee members discussed practical steps: commission a vendor propagation and interference study, gather multiple vendor opinions, and examine whether the town hall tower (behind town hall) could be repurposed or raised to improve height and separate police/fire antennas. Speaker 3 said prior work to connect remote sites via fiber proved much more expensive than anticipated, and the committee noted recurring costs such as licensing for P25 features on each unit.
No decision to adopt P25 was made; the committee agreed to pursue expert vendor assessments (propagation study, cost estimates) and to examine tower condition and options. Speakers emphasized coordinating any transition between police and fire to avoid interoperability loss with neighboring towns that already moved to P25.
The committee asked staff to compile options, probable costs and timelines and to return with multiple vendor proposals and technical assessments before committing to a capital request.
