Charlton, MA VHF 4-Site Simulcast Radio System

Charlton needed reliable town-wide VHF coverage for Police, Fire and Highway, with dispatch that would keep working if one link failed. The Town also needed a path to digital P25 and a way to see problems at its radio sites before users noticed them.

This was a small town without a radio engineer on staff. It needed an independent advocate to write the specification, keep several vendors coordinated, and manage the system once it was live.

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Procurement

LB Comms wrote the requirements and ran the RFP for the Town. The specification called for a VHF simulcast system with receive voting, IP dispatch consoles, microwave transport, and site monitoring. The contract went to Cyber Communications as systems integrator.

We kept the specification flexible after award. When a better site-monitoring product came out after the contract was signed, we held off on the original choice. After evaluating the options, the Town chose a Davicom monitoring system in 2026.

Implementation

LB Comms was the Town's representative through the build. We coordinated the integrator, the tower crews, Town IT and all three departments.

• Simulcast and voting. Four receive sites feed comparators that pick the best signal, and three sites transmit in simulcast.
• Dispatch and network. We worked with Town IT on the console network, including a new core switch at the Police Department tower site, and on fiber runs to the tower and the new fire station.
• Mutual aid. We set up dedicated VHF control stations for regional police and fire mutual aid and secured statewide CoMIRS IDs for the dispatch consolettes.
• Network design. We propose running the radio network apart from the Town's general IT network. That way an outage on phones, cameras or CAD can't take radio down with it.
• Fire Station 2. We designed the new station's radio fit-out: all-band antennas, dispatch consolettes, and remote speakers and controls placed room by room. We also scheduled the tower crew around the general contractor.
• Apparatus. We specified radio installs for new apparatus, including a three-radio ambulance build.

Acceptance

The system went live in analog mode, with three transmit sites and four receive sites. LB Comms tracked every remaining item against the original scope: site monitoring, comparator monitoring, and the move to P25.

The P25 interface software for the consoles didn't exist yet when the system was bought. We brought it in once it was released, along with the comparator software upgrade. The Town authorized both in May 2026, and conversion is planned for fall 2026.

We hold in-building coverage to the same standard. For the new fire substation, we reviewed the in-building amplifier (BDA) test results. We advised retesting once the drywall, garage doors, lighting and Wi-Fi were in place, because the first test ran before the building was finished.

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Managed administrative services

In May 2026 the Town signed four coordinated service agreements, organized by LB Comms. Three are with the integrator, for the consoles, for the radio system and microwave, and for subscriber radios with preventive maintenance. The fourth is LB Comms' own managed services contract. Together they cover the system from end to end, and LB Comms is the single point of contact.

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