  In this pilot investigation, precise optical positions in the FK5 system are
presented for a set of 16 compact extragalactic radio sources, which will be
part of the future radio--optical reference frame. The 0.9 m KPNO and CTIO
telescopes equipped with 2K CCD's have been used for this project. The
astrometric properties of these instruments are investigated in detail. New
techniques of using wide field CCD observations for astrometry in general are
developed. An internal precision of 5 to 31 mas in position per single exposure
is found, depending on the brightness of the object. The tie to the primary
optical reference system is established by photographic astrometry using
dedicated astrographs on both hemispheres. An accuracy of $\approx 30$ mas per
source is estimated for the multi--step reduction procedure when based on the
future Hipparcos catalog, while the FK5--based positions suffer from system
errors of 100 to 200 mas as compared to the radio positions. This work provides
a contribution to the international effort to link the Hipparcos instrumental
coordinate system to the quasi--inertial VLBI radio reference frame. Precise
radio and optical astrometry of a large sample of compact extragalactic sources
will also contribute to the astrophysics of these objects by comparing the
respective centers of emission at the optical and radio wavelengths.
