Clarity · Continuity · Coverage
Mission-Critical Communications Infrastructure — Hardened for the World as It Is
COMPANY OVERVIEW
3C’s Communications was founded outside Bozeman, Montana, by a retired Special Forces 18E (Communications Sergeant) who spent three decades keeping teams alive on comms that had no business working. The company brings that same field discipline to civilian, government, and private-sector clients who require communications infrastructure that performs when every other system has failed.
The company name states the operating philosophy: Clarity in transmission, Continuity through failure, Coverage without gaps. These are not aspirational values. They are engineering specifications.
| Founded | Post-service, Bozeman, MT (Gallatin County) |
| Headquarters | Bozeman, MT — mountain workshop facility, private acreage |
| Structure | Private / owner-operated |
| Primary Market | Rocky Mountain West, with reach to federal and national clients |
| Clearance Status | Principal holds active security clearance; select staff cleared |
| Specialty | Hardened HF/VHF/UHF comms, P.A.C.E. architecture, off-grid redundancy, EMCOMM |
FOUNDER BACKGROUND
The principal grew up in a hardscrabble Montana ranch town where radio was survival, not hobby. He learned Morse code before high school and was copying 30 wpm in his head by age ten. He was fixing broken ham rigs throughout Gallatin County by fourteen.
Drafted in 1963 and placed directly into the 18E pipeline, he spent the Vietnam era rebuilding HF sets in the Central Highlands from chewing-gum foil and baling wire so his team could still call in airstrikes when supply lines collapsed. During Cold War exercises on the East German border, he strung a low-profile rhombic antenna from commo wire and bedsheets, outsmarted Warsaw Pact direction-finding teams for four days, and kept an entire battalion talking without a single detectable transmission. His team called it “Jax magic.” The name stuck. So did the method.
Post-service, he translated three decades of field communications into a civilian practice built on a single premise: the systems that matter most are the ones that have to work when everything else has stopped.
CORE CAPABILITIES
STANDARD P.A.C.E. ARCHITECTURE (REFERENCE MODEL)
3C’s designs every client communications plan around the P.A.C.E. framework — four independent tiers, each operable without the tier above it. The reference model below reflects the architecture deployed for hardened residential and community-group clients in the Rocky Mountain West.
Client-specific P.A.C.E. plans are designed to the actual site, threat model, terrain, and personnel capabilities. The reference model above reflects typical tier assignments; actual implementations vary.
REPRESENTATIVE PROJECT EXPERIENCE
Forest Service Repeater Network — Rocky Mountain Region
Designed and installed linked VHF repeater system across multiple mountain-peak nodes for fire and backcountry coordination. Solar-powered with 72-hour battery reserves. Operable without grid power.
County Sheriff Hardened Comms — Gallatin County, MT
Replaced aging analog system with hardened digital VHF network. Installed EMP-resistant control points and manual fallback capability at all primary facilities. Full P.A.C.E. plan delivered with training.
Federal Agency Secure Relay — Undisclosed location, MT/WY
Designed and installed covert HF relay station for a federal client. Low-observable antenna installation; encrypted HF with ALE. Principal held appropriate clearance for system design.
Private Continuity Estate — Undisclosed, Colorado Rockies
Full communications infrastructure for a hardened private residence: encrypted VHF, HF skywave, GMRS local net, Faraday-protected equipment vault, buried propane backup, and OTP custody arrangement. P.A.C.E. training delivered to all household members including children.
Community EMCOMM Program — Bozeman area, ongoing
Monthly training program covering amateur radio basics through advanced HF operation. Participants range from age ten to adult. Morse code proficiency to 20 wpm standard. Net operations training including proper net discipline, message handling, and OTP procedure.
WHAT SETS 3C’S APART
• Built by someone who used these systems in combat, not in a trade show booth. Every design decision traces back to a field requirement.
• No system leaves the drawing board without a manual fallback. If it requires electricity and a computer to operate, it is not the last line.
• The 140-foot crank-up tower at the Bozeman facility folds into the pines when the FAA gets curious. Discretion is a design parameter, not an afterthought.
• Training is not optional. A system is only as good as the operators who can run it at 0300 when the grid has been down for six hours and the instructions are in a bag under the kitchen floor.
• The principal still copies Morse and still spins the big dial at night, listening for the faint carriers that mean someone somewhere is still on the air. That is not nostalgia. That is quality control.
ENGAGEMENT
3C’s Communications accepts clients by referral. Prospective clients should expect an initial site assessment and threat-model conversation before any system is proposed. The company does not sell products. It designs and installs systems that work.
Federal and cleared clients: the principal holds an active clearance and has supported federal agency comms requirements. Cleared engagement is available under appropriate vehicle.
