Sunday, September 23, 2018

3W3RR - Amateur radio adventures

If you are into this radiohobby you probabely do experiment with radio, communicate, have fun and meet interesting people. Well, I like the social aspect of radio just as much as experimenting. However some people you meet along the way of our hobby are more interesting then others. If I had enough money and time I would probabely travel more to see other countries and experience more adventures especially doing DXpeditions from foreign countries, however I got a family to care about and my life is just not that of a adventurer. Some people just go for it and worry later, without doubt you have to take risks. Questionmark is always how do they get the money to travel to so many countries if you don't have a job like for instance a international sales manager, travel agent owner or even secret agent. Well, I would be interested in that. But first this small story about 3W3RR.

No other radioamateur does intrigue me more as Roman Vega aka Romeo Stepanenko. He was very active in the 90s of last century on several DXpeditions, he took his chances even when he was almost exhausted from a earlier DXpedition. Some were more dangerous then others, some seem to be not really happen as they were fake operations. But those that did happen were adventures, transmitting from dangerous and political rough places with fear of being captured. Imagine in a time just before internet. You need to know your ways to get somewhere. Know who is important at a embassy at a business or know people in the militairy from several countries to get a license. I think Romeo did have a lot of people he knew at high places, people that could arrange things for him. When I read that for instance Yaesu did sponsor 3 radios + amps for the XY0RR DXpedition, you need to have friends that work for Yaesu. You need to have a ability to make friends. It seems Romeo has those abilties not everyone has. The list of DXCC that Romeo activated is almost endless. And to write all about his adventures here is impossible. So I've been searching the internet for stories and so far I think I did read all of them. Most of it can be found on his own website that is maintained by his radio buddies especially by NT2X Edward. I gathered some links to things I found on Romeo's activities.

http://www.3w3rr.com  -  Romeo's site maintained by his friends, especially articles and video links are interesting

http://www.dokufunk.org/amateur_radio/personalities/index.php?CID=1175  -  In german

http://hamgallery.com/gallery/R/Romeo  -  Wherefore Art Thou, Romeo, interesting article by K9RHY

Romeo ended up in jail but as far as I know that hasn't anything to do with hamradio. Or was he looking for a alternative fund for future DXpedtions? We will never know...

http://garwarner.blogspot.com/2014/01/roman-vega-carderplanets-boa-gets-his.html

I found out that the .com site is not really up-to-date. The russian language site is different although looks te same. However it is in russian and you need to translate it with google.

http://www.3w3rr.ru

I became a HAM in 1998 and I was able to be on HF since 2003. So I missed all the "Romeo"adventures. Luckely you can obtain is special "jail dxpedition" QSL. I received it on 13 Sept and showed the envelope on my blog to see if anyone recognized the name...this is probabely the only QSL I got from a no-radio-contact.

Romeo might not be a hamradio hero and was even expelled from the ARRL DXCC program for his fake DX operations. But at least I guess he had fun doing his hobby made friends and had some great adventures, If you take a look at the federal bureau of prisons website and search for his inmate number (59198-004) you will find Romeo will be released within 2 years. Hopefully he will be back into the hobby.




Thanks for the nice QSL Romeo....

8 comments:

Hans said...

Hallo Bas, interessant verhaal. De tijd dat hij actief was heb ik niet meegemaakt op hf, dus de call zegt mij niets.
Wel vind ik hem een beetje vreemd met zijn fake expedities e.d. Met welk doel? 73 Hans, PE1BVQ

Photon said...

Very fascinating! I might like him, except the article about the US justice system makes a lot of noise about how unjust it is, but nothing of why he was in fact sent to jail. But that is not a subject for discussion online!

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hallo Hans, jij weet hoe de wereld in elkaar zit. Er zijn mensen die een geweten hebben en er zijn mensen die geen geweten hebben. Het doel is vaak alleen eigenbelang. Overigens neemt men aan dat het fake DXpeditions zijn, het is niet bewezen, het is ook niet bewezen dat hij bijvoorbeeld wel in noord Korea zat. Romeo was ook niet alleen, er waren meer operators, maar gezien zijn bekendheid destijds en de blofte van hem met bewijzen te komen krijgt hij uiteindelijk de schuld. 73, Bas

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Read the 4th link in the above blogpost. Romeo was not alone get caught with credit card fraud. But well they caught him, the others as well to my understanding. It is indeed not my intention to write about that on my blog. I look at Romeo as hamradio operator. People can have many faces....73, Bas

Roman Vega said...

Hi, Bas. Just stumbled upon your blog. Thanks again for your QSL-card I got there in prison years ago, and I glad that you received mine. It was always a BIG problem to squize some blank 3W3RR/jail QSL-card into prison, and then to mail them outside. Half of the cards had been lost inside of the US prison system, so you're one of the few who were lucky. :)

73!
Romeo
RA/3W3RR

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hello Romeo, I already hoped for a comment from your side as soon as you were a free man again. I saw a report from a received card by EI9KC and just tried. It was a big surprise to receive a QSL in return actually since you moved a couple of times. Luckely my card came through. I wish you a happy live and hope you will return to the hamradio community since you're definitely part of hamradio history! 73, Bas

Roman Vega said...

Hi, Bas.
Thanks for nice words.
Some things in our amateur radio looks not like they are really are, and what ARRL or some persons did said about that or other operation dictated more then less from some or other point of the political (+ personal) black jacks. We had been in North Korea, etc., everything was more them cosher, but our amateur radio is only a small facet, a small blink of the total "what is really going on". But it's doesn't matter for me, so far as I lknow that I did what was right, and everything else is doesn't matter.
Thanks again for your card which I get in prison. You are really lucky that I received it, and that you get mine 3W3RR/jail QSL. Most people had been trying a few time, with no avail. HK3CW did a few bouts, I got nothing, then he sent info about his attempts through my friends, then I sent him my QSL 7 times in course of 2 years. Finaly he got one of them.

A few days ago I just returned from TL8, TT8, V51, ZS1 - no radio, alas, but before that, after my return, I had been lucky to operate as 5R8RR, 7P8RR, 5H1RR, YJ0RR,9Q9RR, UA7K, UA6M, etc. Hope to meet you on the air some time.

Best wishes,

73!
Romeo
RA/3W3RR
Crimea, Russia

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hello Romeo, nice to see another comment from you. I had never thought I would get comments from the actual person I was writing about. To me that is very special. Something tells me you love this post ;-). By the way I still follow your russian blog which I can translate with google to dutch almost perfectly. So I already read about your 9Q9RR adventure and welcome you back to the hamradio family. I hope you will enjoy and continue making friends and do interesting DXpeditions. It is already incredible you travel this much with this Covid-19 situation.

Romeo, I don't really care about the ARRL and their DXCC rules. I have my own rules. I like to work as many DXCC per band and don't really care about QSL especially not interested when I have to buy them. See the "QSL Code of Conduct" button at the right of this blog. Besides that I like to write about hamradio on this blog and make friends. I hope people will get inspired and learn as well as I learn from others.

Good DX and hope we meet on air soon. 73, Bas