1990 Seattle

The first WRTC was conducted in Seattle, WA in July 1990 at the same time as the Goodwill Games.  Developed and hosted by a team of Seattle-area contesters, WRTC-1990 was independent of  the Games but brought contesters together from around the world in the style of Olympic athletic events. One of the highlights of the event, helped by the association with the Goodwill Games, was having radio operators from the Soviet Union visit the United States.

The Seattle WRTC was the first time that contesters all competed from the same general location in a world-class event, rather than from their home stations.  Minimizing the geographic variation unavoidable in a world-wide competition, WRTC enabled operators to compete on the basis of team skills in a common setting.

The actual competition was held on a Friday in a contest that was created just for WRTC. Teams of two-competitors operated one radio together as a team. All of the stations used  by the WRTC teams were located at existing amateur radio stations in the Seattle area. Not all of the stations were in equally advantageous locations, and some had more desirable callsigns than others. In addition to the two team members, a referee was present at each station to monitor compliance with the WRTC rules.

Top three finishers were awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals.

Gold: John Dorr K1AR and Doug Grant K1DG
Silver: Mike Wetzel W9RE and Chip Margelli K7JA
Bronze: Jeff Steinman KR0Y and Bob Shohet KQ2M

More Info

This article about WRTC 1990 appeared in the Seattle Times newspaper.

It was captured and contributed by Stu N7ZZ.

This article about WRTC 1990 was written by Rich Assarabowski K1CC. It gives a great overview of the original WRTC experience.

Rich said, “I recently pulled out a file with all kinds of memorabilia from the event and found an article that I had written about my experiences, shortly after returning from WRTC. It has never been published and I forgot about it all these years.”

(read more…)

Paolo Cortese, I2UIY was a competitor at WRTC 1990 in Seattle. He wrote a two part article in the December 1990 and January 1991 issues of “Radio Revista” magazine about the WRTC experience.

The articles are written in Italian. Thanks to Stu N7ZZ for providing the scanned copies.

(read more…)

K1AR and K1DG operated N7MJZ/WG to victory in the first ever WRTC in 1990 in Seattle. The audio files are made available by Shane K1ZR for your listening pleasure. They are converted from tapes to wav-files.

https://wrtc.info/1990-audio/

 

This 25 minute video of WRTC 1990 was produced by the WRTC 1990 Organizing Committee of K7SS, K7LXC, KE7V, KS7L, W7NG, KM7E, N7MJZ and KM7E. It was professionally narrated by David French N4KET of CNN.

(read more…)

Received these pictures from Stu Hoar, N7ZZ.

Willy, UW9AR, swapping hats with the US Army Ranger

Willy, UW9AR, swapping hats with the US Army Ranger

Willy flanked by an Army MP and a Ranger and three russian pals

Willy flanked by an Army MP and a Ranger and three russian pals

Here is the pileup file created by N0SS(SK) that Stu, N7ZZ ran on the boat trip from Seattle to Tillicum Village on Blake Island for the participants in the first WRTC Goodwill Games. It was a tape created for the Dayton which N0SS donated to add to the fun. Who copied the most calls is unclear so if you have more information on this event please send us an email.

Pileup file: WRTC1990 CW Pileup

Thanks to Stu Hoar, N7ZZ for this piece of history

There was press coverage of WRTC1990 in local newspapers.

Radio Racers, Seattle Times

Smooth Operators, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Local Resident “hams” it up for Goodwill Competition, The Edmonds Paper

Articles about WRTC 1990 appeared in these ham radio publications.

  • The World Radiosport Team Championship, May/Jun 1990 NCJ
  • The World Radiosport Team Championship Wrap-Up, Sep/Oct 1990
  • The World Radiosport Team Championship, Oct 1990 QST

In this first ever WRTC, the competition was held on a Friday. This meant a special contest had to be created so there would be stations for the teams to contact. 

This pdf file contains the official results of the 1990 World Radiosport Team Championship. This includes the Team results, but also all of the scores of stations around the world that contributed their log for the competition.

wrtc1990_results

 

Rank Team Score
1 K1AR/K1DG 263.35
2 W9RE/K7JA 255.39
3 KR0Y/KQ2M 254.30
4 VE7SV/VE7CC 247.44
5 DL5XX/DJ6QT 247.11
6 LZ2PO/LZ1MS 244.86
7 G3YDV/G4BUO 239.21
8 EA5BF/EA9EO 237.56
9 UW9AR/UA9AM 236.45
10 W7EJ/AA4NC 235.12
11 UA1DZ/RB5IM 232.78
12 I2UIY/IK2DVG 229.06
13 OH1XX/OH8PF 228.06
14 OK1RI/OK2FD 225.38
15 YT3AA/YU1RL 220.55
16 HA0MM/HA6NY 219.85
17 UW3AA/UA9SA 209.91
18 UW0CN/UW0CA 209.59
19 JE1JKL/JE1CKA 195.64
20 PY5EG/PY4OD 193.06
21 FD1NYQ/F2CW 177.43
22 JM3JOW/JJ3UHS 172.45

There was some doubt if the WRTC organizers would be able to get permission for the Soviet hams to be able to operate in the USA. The permission was received from the FCC just days before the event.

This document contains a list of all of the participating teams and the organizers that helped make the event possible.

wrtc1990_teams_organizers