[RRDXA] Roman Stepanenko, 3W8RR et al.

[Ulrich Weiss]

hallo DX-Freunde,

im "mediterraneodxclub" fand ich gerade folgende unglaubliche Story über
Romeo, 3W8RR, dem sicher die meisten von uns ein paar "faule" DXCC-Länder
verdanken... selbst wenn dieser Romeo nicht unser Romeo wäre, ist die Story
sicher lesenswert....

Uli, DJ2YA

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Tex Kennedy N5TX
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:;
Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2005 7:11 PM
Subject: Romeo 3W3RR


Incredible story about Romeo 3W3RR
Forwarded to me tonite...This should be of interest to any DX
ham...73's....Tex
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 10:16:58 -0500

 Gather 'round the campfire, boys and girls...

 A few months back, I posted a note on the Society of
 Midwest Contesters reflector asking if anybody knew
 the whereabouts of our dear old friend Romeo
 Stepanenko, 3W3RR. As many will recall, Romeo had a
 habit in the late 1980's and early 1990's of popping
 up with his gear from some of the rarest countries in
 the world of ham radio, make tens of thousands of
 contacts, and then getting us armchair DX'ers to flood
 him with requests for QSL cards (which included "green
 stamps") that often came very late or not at all.
 There was also that minor issue of him not being able
 to provide the DXCC administrators with the proper
 documentation from some of his adventures, proving he
 was indeed where he said he was. In the parlance of
 DX'ing, Romeo was the ultimate Slim, a pirate.

 I'm a musician, and I figured if ever there was
 somebody that was worthy of a scurvy-dog, sea-shanty
 kind of song, ol' Romeo was that person. There were
 rumors he was a shady character, who showed up at the
 Dayton Hamvention in 1999, years after being expelled
 from DXCC, and then disappeared from the face of the
 Earth. He is the sort that is perfect for song and
 story. I needed factual material for the tune, so I
started to do my homework. The note to the SMC
 reflector was the beginning of that homework.

 I didn't get much response other than a couple of
 notes that said, "Yeah, whatever happened to that
 guy?" So, In July 2005, I posted a note on Eham.com in
 their DX forum, entitled "Wherefore Art Thou, Romeo?"
 Again, no info. So, I started searching on Google. I
 found an article online about ham radio in Afghanistan
 that mentioned him in passing, and a site that had
 several of Romeo's QSL's (including WX9X's fake
 P5/R0MEO card he handed out at Dayton one year). I
 printed the articles and stuck them in my notebook I
 keep for writing lyrics, where they have sat for a
 while, collecting dust. I forgot about it and moved on
 to other projects.

 On the evening of October 19, 2005, I received a phone
 call from an inspector with the U.S Postal Service
 based in St. Louis. He said he needed to meet with me
 concerning an investigation of "...one of my
 associates." I obviously made myself available at his
 earliest convenience, which was the next day's lunch
 hour.

 I ran over to my friend Matt, NM9H's place. Was he
 trading endangered animals over the Internet?
 Circumnavigating customs laws by importing fresh fruit
 from Venezuela? Ripping tags off of mattresses and
 mailing them to Botswana? He assured me he was doing
 nothing of the sort, as he was "...an old man with a
 house full of kids, with neither the time nor energy
 to be surreptitious."

 A night of fitful sleep ensued. We jazz and folk
 musicians have a sordid history in America, often
 lumped together with other unsavories like gangsters,
 communists, and bootleggers. Which of my compadres had
 warranted constabulatory intervention, and how did the
 Postal Service get involved? Besides, my youthful
 indiscretions are long over, as I have nothing to be
 discrete about any longer and I'm closer to
 middle-aged than youthful. In short, like my friend
 NM9H, I'm boring and getting old.

 The Inspector came to my place today (20 October
 2005), and after some pleasantries, asked if the name
 Roman Vega meant anything to me; I truthfully answered
 no. He then asked if I was a ham operator, to which I
 said yes. He then asked if the name Romeo Stepanenko
 meant anything to me, and I nodded uncertainly. The
 Inspector then produced a printout of my Romeo inquiry
 on Eham.com. He said he was following up on an
 investigation from the US Department of Justice in San
 Francisco concerning our beloved Romeo, and he wanted
 to know why I was asking about him in a public forum.

 I gave him a Reader's Digest version of ham radio,
 DX'ing, and an overview of the DXCC program. I
 explained how Romeo pretended to operate from various
 exceptionally rare places, duped tens of thousands of
 us into sending him SASE's with green stamps included,
 and was then caught and expelled from the DXCC program
 for these fraudulent ham activities. I explained why
 this caused such a scandal to a program that has had
 an exceedingly high level of ethics and scrutiny
 associated with it over the years. He was quite
 interested in people sending dollars along with QSL
 requests. I explained it was customary to help pay for
 the QSL you're going to receive, especially when
 dealing with an operation from a place as rare as
 Myanmar or North Korea.

 I then had to explain to him why I'd want to write a
 song about such an unsavory character. As I explained,
 every hobby or pastime has some level of folklore or
 legend attached to it, and Romeo is one of the most
 infamous characters in the history of DX'ing. In
 baseball, people wrote songs about Jackie Robinson and
 Joltin' Joe. Bob Dylan wrote about Emmett Till. Heck,
 Frank Zappa wrote about a wacko dubbed by the press as
 The Illinois Enema Bandit. Numerous ballads have been
 written about pirates, oddballs, do-gooders and
 ne'er-do-wells in all cultures all around the globe.
 Ham Radio DX'ing may be a small culture in the grand
 scheme of things, but it is a culture nonetheless. It
 stands to reason that, just like any other culture,
 the heroes are glorified and the villains are reviled.
 To me, writing a song about Romeo seemed logical and
 fun.

 After an hour of questioning by the Inspector (nice
 guy, by the way), he said it was quite obvious I
 wasn't involved in any of Romeo's current shenanigans,
 and proceeded to tell me The Story:

 Roman Vega, aka Romeo Stepanenko, was arrested and
 extradited from Cyprus to the United States in March
 of 2004, and has been charged with 40 counts of wire
 fraud and trafficking in stolen credit card numbers.
 He is alleged to have done this in online chat rooms.
 The Inspector I spoke with indicated that he allegedly
 bilked over $3 million out of this scheme. Romeo has
 pleaded not guilty to all charges. He has been held in
 northern California, as he is considered a flight
 risk. His trial is scheduled to begin in San Francisco
 on Monday, November 28.

 Here is a link to the US Department Of Justice press
 release:

 http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/can/press/html/2004_06_04_vega.html

 Here is a link to the actual indictment filed in
 Federal Court:

 http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/can/press/assets/applets/2004_06_04_Vega_ind.pdf

 As Paul Harvey would say, "Now you know the rest of
 the story."

 The Inspector never informed me that I was not allowed
 to discuss this, so I'm posting it here for all to
 see. He indicated the case against Romeo looked quite
 good indeed, and that they were following up on all
 leads they had concerning him. I was "lucky" enough to
 have been considered a Person Of Interest; I got to
 see a copy of my Federal subpoena, where I was
 "commanded" to appear in Federal court on November 28
 at 8:30AM. The Inspector indicated this would probably
 not be needed. He did mention that San Francisco is
 quite nice this time of year, though, and it was
 almost a pity I wouldn't get to take the Government up
 on their free "vacation." I gave him one of those
 nervous smiles and waited for him to move on.

 He left me his card, said he'd file his report, and
 told me I'd probably never hear from him again. He did
 give me the case number (Northern District Of
 California CR04-0101 CRD), since it's a matter of
 public record. The fact that I was sitting on the edge
 of my seat as he was telling me this, slack-jawed and
 with my eyes as wide as saucers, might have had
 something to do with him giving me the info as well.

 How did I get associated with Romeo? I'm just a ham
 operator who had one QSO with him when he was in
 Vietnam (still my only 3W QSO), spent probably
 hundreds of hours listening for him from his other
 far-flung locales, but never worked him anywhere other
 than 3W. I just happened to ask the right question at
 the wrong time.

 It certainly is interesting what bites sometimes when
 you go fishing, eh?

 I'm finally recording my solo CD now. I'll be sure to
 let everybody know when it's done. I could use a lead
 player, though; maybe I should give WB6ACU a call...

 73,

 Sean Kutzko KX9X
 Gillespie, IL