ANTRAK

ANTRAK (Ankara Telsiz ve Radyo Amatörleri Kulübü) is a club for radio amateurs and technologically minded people in Ankara, Turkey.

Founded on July 31, 1985 by:
Göktay Alpman TA2R
Nursun Akıncı TA2N
Ufuk Türkeri TA2AS
Ünver Ungan
Esin Ungan
Suha Aktar TA2G
Fazıl Erdim
İlker Tirben

In Turkey, amateur radio was banned until the late 1980s but a dedicated group of enthusiasts kept on with their hobbies. Raids by the police and Gendarmerie were not uncommon but in 1983 Turkey's legislature caught up with the world and made amateur radio operations legal. Along with the CB craze, amateur radio started to flourish as well and finally legal organizations were founded.

The first two organizations were TRAC and ANTRAK. TRAC is an organization country-wide but ANTRAK is strictly local to Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. Although it is created by Ankara's own amateurs, it has an agenda to help everyone who are interested in amateur radio and electronics.

ANTRAK publishes a monthly on-line magazine, ANTRAK Gazette or ANTRAK Gazetesi.

It also has a public mailing group hosted in Yahoo! Groups and has an electronic web-based forum served at www.antrak.org.tr.

ANTRAK also publishes the one and only Amateur Radio Guide written in Turkish, mainly to help others to pass the amateur radio examination. It contains sample test questions and basics of electronics and has helped many to gain their first licenses.