Romeo Stepanenko, 3W3RR
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B Rufzeichen / Call Signs
Provisorische Liste / Work in progress
Short list of Romeo's Call Signs
1S0RR, 1S0XV, 1S1RR, 3W3RR/UF6F (earthquake rescue operation), 3W3RR/mm (South China Sea), 3W5JA, 3W7A, 3W8AA, 3W100HCM, 4J1FM, 4J1FW, 4J0Q, 4L/AH0M, 4U1ITU, 4U1VIC, 5A0RR, 9D0RR, 9H3UP, 9H50VE, 9Y4/AH0M, AH0M, AH0M/am (Bermuda Triangle perambulation), AH0M/VE2, AH0M/VE3, AH0M/W4 (Dry Tortugas Isl.), BY1PK, DL/AH0M, EK0JA, EK0RR/am (hot air balloon), EK0RR/mm (Russian Navy submarine), EW8TJ, FJ/AH0M, FS/AH0M, HB0/3W3RR, HB9/AH0M, IT9/AH0M (Etna volcano), J37/AH0M, J6/AH0M, JA3ZTN, JI1ZTA, KP2/AH0M, KP4/AH0M, LZ1KDP, LZ9A, LZ/AH0M, OE/AH0M, OK8ERR, OM9CRR, P5RS7, PJ2/AH0M, PJ7/AH0M, R3A (Russian Parliament, 20-21 August 1991), RB4JWS/UF1O (South Ossetia), RB4JWS/UF1Q (Adzharia), RB4JWS/UF1V (Abkhazia), RO/3W3RR (Pridnestrovie), S79R, TA1/3W3RR, TA2/3W3RR, UB5JRR, UB5JRR/UA6E (Mount Elbrus), UB5JRR/UA6X, UQ1GWW, V2A/AH0M, VP2E/AH0M, VP2M/AH0M, VP2M/AH0M/am (helicopter), VP5/AH0M, XE2/AH0M, XV2A, XV0SU, XV100HCM, XY0RR, YA0RR, YL1WW, YL75ID (Island of Death), as well as the guest operations courtesy to the friends' & clubs' hospitality worldwide: 5B4, 8Q7, 9H1, 9H4, A41, A61, AP2, DL, EA, EI, EP, ES, G, I, HA, HB9, HB0, JA, OE, OK, PA, SP, UA1-0, UC2, UD6, UH8, UI8, UL7, UO5, TA, VE2-3, VO2, VU2, W1-8, YK, YL, YO
Detailed list of Romeo's Call Signs ► Mehr/read on
C The early years
Romeo Stepanenko was born 1964 in the Ukraine, son of Vladimir Stepanenko UB1RR who most probably introduced him to amateur radio. Nothing is known, to date, of Romeo's childhood and youth, or of his military service. Nor do we know where and when he obtained his license.
His own accounts start in early 1989:
1989: 3W3RR, Vietnam
Romeo, meanwhile, had enrolled with a joint Soviet-Vietnamese company, Kiulong, and on that firm's payroll went to Vietnam, in late 1989.
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.
April/May 1990: 1S0XV/1S1RR, Spratly
Expedition-Video: hier - YouTube video here: : 
ext. Link -- Quoting from Romeo's report: "By February <1990> I had established some good connections with the local officials in Saigon and started gathering information ... to look into the possibility of a Spratly operation. ... Finally it was becoming clear that this matter could be resolved only in Hanoi, at the highest level.
January and December, 1991: YA0RR, Afghanistan
The idea of reactivating amateur radio in the middle of political chaos was certainly both a questionable and daring undertaking, but one man held on to this crazy idea: Romeo Stepanenko 3W3RR, who allegedly used his excellent personal contacts to further this adventure. Due to his secretive activities a widespread rumor stubbornly existed that Romeo may have been a high-ranking official of the Soviet secret service KGB. Romeo did not want to disclose how he obtained his license...
Romeo's photo album (Courtesy ofSilversun)
1 - Flight Moscow-Tashkent / 2 - Fluight Tashkent - Kabul / 3, 4 - Kabul Airport / 5, 6 - Kabul street scenes / 7 - ??? / 8 - The Shack / 9 - On the road in Mazar-al-Sharif / 10 - Mazar-al-Sharif
1991: Moscow interlude for a new-born hero - and a trip around the world
The incredible career of Romeo Stepanenko - and a world-tour
Meanwhile Muscovites moved in to protect the White House, and by Monday evening had set up barricades and formed a human chain around the building. By Wednesday morning, tanks and armored personnel carriers approached the barricades under orders to storm them, and in the ensuing fighting several civilians lost their lives. Most soldiers, however, refused to fire on the crowds, and the coup attempt soon faltered
Amateur Radio played a great role during those days - with station RA3 operating directly from the White House: "On Monday, August 19, 1991, Andy Gromov, UA6XGL... agreed to begin transmitting the decrees from his home station, and did so until his transceiver failed. Then an invitation came... to set up on the sixth floor of the White House." Andy reacted immediately: "I installed my homemade transceiver and a 300-watt amplifier using a power cord cut from a vacuum cleaner for interconnecting cables. For cooling, we set my amplifier on a garbage pail with a fan. ... RA3 came on the air at 2 AM Moscow time August 20. and began transmitting the first of many decrees from Russian President Boris Yeltsin. ...The military soon began jamming us.... By Tuesday, August 20, some amateurs in Moscow had discovered the frequencies being used by the putschists. They began reporting ... tank movements around the city to the White House." "Jamming of RA3 reminded of the infamous Russian 'Woodpecker', a frequency-sweeping, over-the-horizon radar. To avoid this, RA3 moved frequency, confusing the nonamateur jammer operators with ham jargon such as Q signals, 'Up five,' and so on.
On the morning of August 20, two representatives of Moscow-Boston International arrived: Yuri Brazhenko and Romeo Stepanenko. They brought an IC-726 to replace Andy's homemade transceiver.
"RA3 was received all over the USSR, where amateurs taped our broadcasts for delivery to local government officials and for the newspapers. Foreign embassies and the US Department of State also began tuning to RA3. ...Also on the 20th, station R3B was set up on the 20th floor of the White House. There ... one of the popular homemade amateur ... transceivers [was modified] to transmit AM on the broadcast band .... This enabled citizens throughout Moscow proper to receive Yeltsin's decrees on their table radios." "Late on the 20th, the first attempt at a military assault on the White House began, and we were terrified for our lives."
The Amateur Radio operators at R3A/R3B were: UA1ZCU, UA6XGL, RW3DP, UV3DCX, UA3DMC, UA6YHP, UV3ACQ, RA3AA, UA3AOC, UA3ANL, and UA9-163-075.
(Quoted from: "Meanwhile in St. Petersburg" by Robert S. Howe, K1MZB and "The 'White House' Operation" , and from: "Soviet Hams Rally Against Coup" by Edward Kritsky, NT2X, in: QST November, 1991)
It was Romeo's greatest time. He was celebrated as a hero, invited to every major hamvention, honoured guest and everybody's darling.
September 1991: XY0RR, Myanmar - and 1S0VX/1S1RR, Spratly, again
Only a few days after his spectacular appearance in Moscow, Romeo landed his next coup, something just unthinkable (or so people thought at that time): From 30 August, 1991 he activated, the former Burma. It was the first (initially) recognized amateur rdsio operation after almost thirty years. No wonder that Myanmar ranked amongst the most wanted DXCC Entities worldwide. For two weeks four Soviet hams activated XYØRR.
August 1992: 9D0RR, Iran / December 1992: P5RS7, North Korea
Romeo Stepanenko, the unsurpassed big gun of amateur radio...
It was Romeo's greatest time. He was celebrated as a hero, invited to every major hamvention, honoured guest and everybody's darling. He obtained a US license and, in fact, collected call sign after call sign in incredibly short time - adding up to about fifty. Romeo was the highlight at the Dayton hamvention, in 1992, where we signed QSL cards and met his buddies. And the miracles continued: Romeo even topped his fame by activating another two "impossible" DXCC Entities.
August 1993: 5A0RR, Libya
The Last Coup
Romeo states, "Originally, plans called for the use of six amateur radio operators for 5A, but due to the lack of funding we had to limit ourselves to three operators: Said (Libyan), who currently holds the call sign 5A0RR, Danny, LZ2UU and myself. During the operation, which lasted five days, we worked over 11,000 stations...
February 1996: Romeo's decline and fall
The game is over
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.
Ending behind bars
Romeo used various aliases due to his different jobs which dealt with different governments: names Romero Vega and Roman Vega were on his Guatemalan and Costa-Rican passports (with latest he was arrested in Cyprus). Based on information revealed by U.S. Secret Service, Romeo, aside of his Ukrainian and Russian passports issued on the name "Stepanenko", had been holding a few more passports: Estonian, Belgium, Greek, and United Kingdom, issued with the other different names. - He 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. 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.
Romeo's trial was scheduled to begin in San Francisco on Monday, November 28, 2005.
An update from Ed Kritsky...
(Photo: Romeo) We have tried time and again to find out about Romeo's whereabaouts after his detention. US authorities denied information, and Romeo's father, too, did not want to comment on his son's fate. But now Bernie McClenny, W3UR, the publisher of the Daily DX Bulletin, reveived an email from Ed Kritsky, NT2X, Romeo's buddy during the days of early fame, reprint and duplication permitted. Here is Ed's account:
...and an update from Romeo himself
Legal note: The opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the publisher of this web site.
"Currently I am incarcerated in New York’s MDC (Metropolitan Detention Center) in Brooklyn. I was arrested almost 10 years ago and have still not been sentenced by the American court. I was last arrested in 2003 in Cyprus, alleged to be Boa and charged (on the base of very flimsy and circumstantial evidence) of being one of the organizers and leaders of the criminal hacker-carder syndicate CarderPlanet and BoaFactory. A year and a half after the arrest, in 2004, I was extradited from Cyprus to the United States. My extradition documents were cooked by Cyprus police, based on the Interpol order initiated by the U.S. Government.
Romeo's "Jail QSLs"
Obviously, Romeo doesn't have access to radio equipment while he is in jail. However, to receive his jail-QSL, it's unnecessary to make on-air QSO with him. The numbered jail-card will be sent to anyone whose card Romeo receives by mail at his current jail's address: "If your QSL-card makes it through the jail's censorship, and arrives into my hands, this means that the jail-QSO has indeed taken place. Henceforth, you will find your callsign in the 3W3RR jail-pedition log 
ext. Link as well as on twitter @RomanVega_com. Afterwards you will receive by snail mail a 3W3RR jail-pedition numbered QSL card. According to the jail's mail policies, a prisoner is only permitted to receive letters, postcards, photos and printouts. QSLs are considered postcards, and generally make it through. Do not send IRCs, postage stamps, green stamps or S.A.S.E., as all of these are considered contraband and immediately trashed (frequently along with the entire envelope's contents). Books and magazines mailed from private parties are not permitted. CDs and DVDs are also prohibited,."
Send your QSL-cards only, nothing else, to the current jail's address:
Roman Vega / # 59198-004 / MDC Brooklyn / P.O.Box 329002 / Brooklyn, NY 11232, U.S.A.
(Note: Romeo was transferred, in April 2015, to Georgia (CI McRae).
Prior to mailing Romeo a QSL card, better to verify that he hasn't been transferred to another jail by checking his current address at ext. Link
December 2013: The verdict - 18 years!
Ukrainian National Who Co-Founded Cybercrime Marketplace Sentenced To 18 Years In Prison
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 12, 2013
Roman Vega Co-Founded CarderPlanet, One of the First Online Marketplaces for Stolen Financial Data
BROOKLYN, NY – Earlier today, at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, Roman Vega, one of the world’s most prolific cybercriminals, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Vega, a Ukrainian national who co-founded the notorious Internet website CarderPlanet, pled guilty in 2009 to conspiracies to commit money laundering and access device fraud. At the time of his arrest, Vega possessed over half a million stolen credit card numbers.
January 2020: released!
From the York County Prison (PA) where he was held from November 2019, Romeo was escorted to the airplane jetway at JFK airport and on February 1, 2020 landed in Russia.
