HAM RADIO PRANK EARNS MAN FINE, MAYBE TIME

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 14, 1993                   TAG: 9302140210
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA                                LENGTH: Short
HAM RADIO PRANK EARNS MAN FINE, MAYBE TIME
A Fairfax man has pleaded guilty to charges he sent false distress signals on his ham radio that led the Coast Guard on a wild-goose chase in the West Indies.
Jorge Mestre, a 50-year-old employee of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. Under the terms of his plea agreement, he must pay a $50,000 fine to the Coast Guard, surrender his amateur radio license and get rid of his ham radio equipment within 60 days.
He also could face up to six years in prison and $250,000 in additional fines when he is sentenced. No sentencing date was available.
Federal prosecutors said Mestre sent the distress signals on Aug. 7. He first reported a boat sinking off the Turks and Caicos islands in the West Indies, which includes the Caribbean islands east of Puerto Rico southward to South America.
During the next few hours, he also claimed that six people had abandoned the boat and were in the water 25 miles off the Providenciales, Turks and Caicos islands.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB