Wherefore Art Thou, Romeo?

"O Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore Art Thou, Romeo?"

William Shakespeare

Bob Farkaly, K9RHY

ZCZC AE53
QST de W1AW
DX Bulletin 11 ARLD011
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT February 21, 1996
To all radio amateurs
SB DX ARL ARLD011

ARLD011 Awards committee vote

The ARRL Awards Committee met recently to review submitted documentation for the 1992-93 P5RS7 operation submitted by Romeo Stepanenko. After a review of all material available, the Awards Committee voted unanimously to disqualify Romeo Stepanenko from participation in the DXCC program.

This disqualification is based upon Rule 12, Operations Ethics, and Rule 13. The disqualification means that Stepanenko is not eligible to participate in the DXCC program in any manner. This includes, as provided for under Rule 12, paragraph (b) disallowance of contacts made with any station or DXpedition operated by him from the time of this action.

Romeo Stepanenko, aka Roman Vega, P5RS7, UB5RR, 3W3RR, XYØRR, 1SØRR, etc. got in hot water a few years ago when some details about his P5RS7 operation came into question, resulting in the ARRL bulletin reproduced above. But that’s neither the start nor the end of the Romeo story. I was a keen fan and follower of Romeo and thought it would be interesting to dig a bit further into the "Romeo story".

Romeo Stepanenko was born 1966 in the Ukraine, son of Vladimir Stepanenko UZ1RR/UZ8RR (UB1RR at the time—guess how Romeo decided on his own distinctive call suffix?). Romeo’s father appears to be currently active with two calls. I don’t know the significance of the "RR" suffix, but there was a Ukranian certificate available for working stations with an "RR" suffix. To qualify, one of your contacts had to be Romeo!

Romeo graduated from Simferopol University in Crimeria, majoring in math and computer science. He joined the Mountain Rescue service after graduation. Romeo married Alyona (Alena), who had recently graduated from college. They have one daughter. In order to talk to Romeo during his absences, she secured the call UT5JDA which she still holds. I don’t think this is widely known as her QRZ.com listing shows just 97 lookups.

UZ1RR
Vladimir A. Stepanenko,
P.O. Box 28 14000,
Chernigov Ukraine
Lookups: 1482 Ham Member

UT5JDA
Alena V. Stepanenko,
335059 Sevastopol, ul. Gheroev Stalingrada,
37-54 Ukraine
Lookups: 97

Sometime before or during 1989, Romeo joined Kiulong (CUULONG in Cyrillic), a Soviet / Vietnamese joint venture and a manufacturer of medical devices. Romeo then went to Vietnam and, in his own words: "The Minister of telecommunications of that country wanted to create an Amateur Radio Society; so, after a little thinking, I accepted a job to conduct courses for new hams, create a club station, produce rules and regulations for the Vietnamese. During the day I taught my hams to be; at night I got on the air and operated 3W3RR."

While in Saigon, Romeo contacted local officials about staging a DXpedition to the Spratly Islands. The Spratly’s were extremely rare in 1990. The first operation there had been by the infamous Don Miller, W9WNV in 1965. Between the 1S9WNV operation and 1990 there had been only three limited operations from the island group. Also, in 1990, the memory of DJ4EI’s death from cannon fire during Baldur’s (DJ6SI) 1983 terribly ill fated DXpedition to Barque Canada and Amboyna Cay was still a recent memory.

1S0XV made about 40,000 QSOs. Romeo, using his personal call, 1S1RR, made 1,027 QSOs.

In December 1990, the YA0RR operation was "greenlighted" and the undertaking began with worldwide coordination by Ed Kritsky, NT2X and financial support from Japan and the U.S.A. Ham history says that Yuri Brazhenko, the president of "Moscow Boston International Ltd. Provided an "unlimited" credit line for the project.

Romeo and his friend Valery "Larry" YL3CW from the club station in Riga flew from Moscow on December 31, 1990 and landed two hours later not in Kabul, but rather in Tashkent! The Russian military had diverted their flight. On January 2, 1991 they boarded a half military flight to Kabul. The Soviet delegation, expected upon arrival at the airport, failed to materialize due to a gap in communications. As it would turn out, this was not the last unpleasant surprise to occur. During the unpacking of the equipment in the Soviet complex in the city, it became apparent that most of the antennas and some of the equipment had been stolen while the team cooled their heels in Tashkent.

The Soviets themselves would not risk going out into the streets after 9:00 P.M., and at 10:00 a curfew went into effect. After that time, any passersby could be shot without warning. The government opposition was 30 kilometers from the city and kept it under continuous bombardment. This was anything but an ideal situation to venture out in. Whoever wished to erect an antenna anywhere was automatically a target of all the warring parties. The danger was so great that the Soviet ambassador prohibited the construction of the station in the occupied city. In addition, the license did not come from the communications ministry, but from a high ranking government official whose name Romeo has never revealed.

Since further government support could not be expected, Romeo and Larry decided to act on their own. On January 5, they found a hideout in a suburb of Kabul and Larry built a 3 meter high, almost invisible loop antenna from thin wire as anything else would be suicide. With this antenna the first 10 meter QSO's were made with 100 watts because the sound of a generator would have drawn unwanted attention. The team changed their location 14 times, from comfortable single family dwellings to primitive foxholes. Ninety percent of the contacts were made with the "Afghani Special", a 21 meter long wire, on which laundry was hung for camouflage. Even without an antenna tuner (it was stolen in Tashkent) it was possible to operate on all bands. The risk of erecting "real" antennas was too great.

Next up, in September 1991, was the XY0RR operation from Myanmar. According to Romeo: "What made XY0RR possible was a chain of incredible events and coincidences. It was easier to get a license than we had originally thought. A group of four was formed: Harry RA3AUU, Gena UA9MA, Roman 4K2OT/UB1KA and Romeo himself. The team loaded their wares onto a military helicopter. Suddenly it turned out that the operating position was no longer to be in the Miei Islands, as was originally discussed. It was in the Golden Triangle. At some time prior to our arrival, a patch of land had been cleared for the operation. We were briefed by the chief of the guards. An area of 20 x 30 meters was assigned for the operation, and leaving this area wasn't desirable. By the last day of operation we were absolutely exhausted and couldn't take it anymore. The helicopter arrived, forcing us to shut down altogether. We pulled the plug on September 11, with a total of 50,007 contacts in the log."

The DXAC (DX Advisory Committee) repeatedly asked for documentation, and, after examination, accepted the operation for the DXCC program although some doubts about the true location of the station and the validity of its transmit permission still remained.

Yoshi Hayashi, JA1UT, had been trying for some time to obtain a license for Myanmar. In January 1990 he met with Lt. Col. Than Tut, Director General of the Information and Broadcasting Department, Ministry of Communication. They discussed the possibility of opening amateur radio. Some time later, Lt. Col. Than Tut was replaced by Lt. Col. Kyi Lwin. Yoshi and his friends travelled to Yangon in May and November 1990, and again in August 1991. Lt. Col. Kyi Lwin proposed to raise the question of the resumption of amateur radio at a cabinet meeting. Then the XY0RR operation by Romeo was given DXCC credit. Meanwhile, in response to a query, the Myanmar Central Government sent a telex to JA1UT stating they had not granted any licence or permission for amateur radio operation to foreigners.

I have a DXer friend who lives in the Chicago area that also travelled to Yangon to "pick up his license" only to find out that the central government had squashed the idea.

Romeo operated from Iran in August 1992 as 9D0RR and received prompt approval from the DXAC. He was well on his way to becoming a DX superstar.

Next up is my personal favorite. It was reported in a press release that Kan, JA1BK, and Romeo had obtained permission from the North Korean military to operate from the DPRK. The first contact was reported around 0020 UTC on December 19, 1992. There was a second press release on December 20th indicating that the operation was shut down by the local authorities. Thirty minutes later P5RS7 appeared again on 40M.

Romeo submitted written authorization for P5RS7 in 1996 which was rejected by the ARRL DXAC. Romeo was disqualified from the DXCC program under the ethics clause. Any further submissions for any of his operations would be rejected as described in the ARRL bulletin at the start of this narrative.

Romeo enjoyed some extracurricular activity, operating from various places in Soviet Georgia, from Liechtenstein and from a Ukranian submarine (I am not making this up!) I wish I had been able to work Romeo when he was /AM in a hot air balloon.

In June, 1993, Romeo, accompanied by Danny, LZ2UU and a Libyan national named Said operated as 5A0RR from Libya. According to Romeo: "This DXpedition coincided with the International Arab Summit being held in Cairo, so National security throughout the region was at a fever pitch. The DXpedition was terminated when Danny and Romeo were accused by Libyan counter intelligence and Egyptian police of planning to assassinate both President Mubarak and Libyan Leader Qadafi." To make matters worse and even more bizarre, the authorities claimed Romeo and Danny were using ham radio as a cover for illegal drug trafficking by communicating with Turkish ships in the ports of Benghazi and Alexendria. Romeo and Danny were both arrested and placed in a Libyan prison and held incommunicado.

Romeo continues: "This experience caused my health to deteriorate greatly and I am currently under doctor's care and receiving medical treatment."

And now the Romeo story takes a twist. A very sad twist. Roman Vega, aka Romeo Stepanenko, was arrested and extradited from Cyprus to the United States in March 2004, and charged with 40 counts of wire fraud and trafficking in stolen credit card numbers. He is alleged to have done this in on-line chat rooms. He allegedly bilked over $3 million through this scheme. Romeo has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He was detained in Northern California, as he was considered a flight risk. His trial was scheduled to begin in San Francisco on Monday, November 28, 2005.

Another indictment in New York for access device fraud and money laundering followed 2 years later and convictions eventually secured.

So I went looking for the official records at the US DOJ website and guess what? No records. But his old sidekick, Ed Kritsky, NT2X, said this in an email dated May 30, 2010.

"Well, it is seven years later and there has been no trial. Detention, yes, continued investigation, certainly, but NO TRIAL.

Call me naive, but I would have difficulty believing this is possible in this country. Well, it is possible. Seven years is a long time to investigate a case against someone held in jail. IMHO, something is wrong with this picture. Or maybe the case isn't that solid? Draw your own conclusions, fellas. He is residing only few miles away, yet we had no contact over this time. This is the first letter I received. I dare to guess that something is changing in his circumstances and he decided to write He doesn't speak about his case much. It is an intensely private matter.

Apparently he doesn't want to share it with the worlds at this time. The reasons are obvious. Do you want to know if he is alive and well? He is, full of the usual "piss and vinegar". He is doing as well as he can within the jail confines. Romeo shares his cell with other inmates, all 120 of them. Call it a room with a view. Allowing for a peek at distant Manhattan and Gowanus Express-way 40 ft away.

His English has improved to the point of becoming his official second language. He has spent last 3 years studying Japanese and other languages. Romeo is busy. His own library of about 150 books and a stack of books and periodicals waiting to be read (he is subscribed to about 20), extensive letter writing to all sorts of people, excelling at yoga. His mood is upbeat and he keeps a very positive outlook on life and his own fate. This is the same unbending Romeo I knew back when he was in zenith of his worldwide fame, except showing more wisdom and reserve.

Do I think he is an angel with a snow white consciousness? No, not really. Does he deserve our sympathy? That depends on which side of the fence you are on. I think that Amateur Radio world may have lost track of Romeo for awhile, but he is not forgotten.

So, boys and girls, fan (and hate) mail may be sent to him directly: Roman Vega, # 59198-004, MDC, PO Box 329002, Brooklyn, NY 11232. Letters, photos and QSLs are welcome, but currency, checks or IRCs of any kind are strictly forbidden by jail regulations.DO NOT SEND them! (Romeo, ain't this ironic?)

He promises a special jailhouse QSL when he gets out (another 'new one' from this DXpeditioner). Just don't expect one too soon.

To those inquiring minds who want to know: Is Romeo Stepanenko using me to get his name back in the limelight again? The answer is no. OK, maybe just a little bit. But I don't mind. He hasn't asked for anything. I'm posting this letter to the Amateur community totally on my own. Opinions expressed are my own and not Romeo's. Reprint and duplication of this information in any form are freely permitted."

Romeo as he looks today.

Romeo’s current residence. No antennas are visible.

Romeo in better times, signing QSL cards at Dayton.

73, Bob K9RHY

Published in the San Diego DX Club Bulletin April 2012
Used with permission from K9RHY
Photo of Romeo and wife courtesy of Vienna QSL Museum

December 12, 2013

Ukrainian National Who Co-Founded Cybercrime Marketplace Sentenced To 18 Years In Prison. Read here:
http://www.justice.gov/usao/nye/pr/2013/2013dec12.html

UB5JRR, Roman Stepanenko, (aka Roman Vega), "one of the world's most prolific cybercriminals, was sentenced to 18 years in prison", reports the United States Attorney's Office Eastern District of New York. "Romeo" who many old timers will remember was a young and up and coming DXpeditioner in the late 80's and early 90's before being tossed out of the DXCC program in 1996, as he broke rules 12 and 13, after several bogus DXpeditions including the infamous P5RS7 scandal.

In 2014, Romeo was transfered from NYC to a prison in California.