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

WRTC 1990 – Radio Racers

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

It was captured and contributed by Stu N7ZZ.

wrtc1990_radio_racers_article Download

WRTC 1990 – A World Class Event

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.”

WRTC 1990 – A World-Class Event by K1CC Download

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WRTC 1990 – Radio Revista Articles by I2UIY

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.

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WRTC 1990 N7MJZ/WG audio files

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/

WRTC 1990 Video – Passport to Friendship

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.

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Additions to WRTC 1990 from Stu Hoar, N7ZZ

Received these pictures from Stu Hoar, N7ZZ.

Willy, UW9AR, swapping hats with the US Army Ranger

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

WRTC1990 Publicity

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

WRTC1990 World Radiosport Team Championship Results

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

WRTC 1990 Final Standings

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

FCC Permission for Non-USA Operators

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.

WRTC1990 Teams and Organizers

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

wrtc1990_teams_organizers