Antennas in Turkey

Click on a picture to enlarge it

The population of Turkey is about 68 million. The gross national product per capita is about 6700 USD (in Poland - about 11000).
The number of registered cell phones is about 26 million (in Poland - 14 million). The service of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is provided by four operators Turkcell, Telsim, Aria, Aycell.

Transmission of TV programs began in the year 1968. (Poland - 1952). There are 4 national public TV programs, 16 private TV programs, and 4 digital and SAT TV packages to chose from. In 1990 the government monopoly on TV programming broadcasting was crushed and from that moment on Turkey has been experiencing a real boom in the private TV sector.

The first broadcasting in Turkish started in 1990. Presently programs in Turkish are reaching all continents thanks to the satellite like Turksat 1C, Eutelsat W3, Eutelsat HotBird-6, Thaicom-3, Optus B3, PAS 8, Intelsat 907, Telstar 5

Internet services are still in their infancy - the number of the Internet users is about 4.4 million, in Poland about 8 million.

Different country different habits - in Poland dipole antennas are dominant at the moment, whereas about 80% of Turkish antennas for terrestrial TV constitute different types of constructions having one feature in common: reflecting dish.

Like everywhere, also in Turkey, some people are getting on well and some are less successful. In the mountains of Cappadocia the inhabitants of houses carved in volcanic rocks are trying to keep up with the technological progress; they buy TV's and build antenna installations. More complex installations can be found on houses (yale) of the more fortunate on the The Bosporus Strait. The owner of this house needs as many as 6 SAT TV dishes.

2500 years BC the residents of what is now Turkey, so called Hittites, became a menace to the powerful Egyptian empire since they had developed and introduced a new chariot design, which had wheels, with four spokes, and which held three, instead of two warriors.
Today the success of any military operation depends on communication. There are many military communication installations in Ankara and the surrounding area; antenna fields, shortwave infrastructure.

Medieval visitors to the country of sultans used to stop for a night at ''karawanserayas''. They exchanged information and rested. Those facilities were built by a sultan every 30-40 km so the trade could thrive and the country could become richer.
Today's travelers need fast information. SAT TV is functioning rather well in Turkish hotels - this offset antenna with 3 converters must be picking signal from different satellites from various longitudes.

2 thousand years ago a religious idea that had originated in Palestine reached Greece and Turkey. It found many followers here and in the year 537 the Church of the Holy Wisdom - Hagia Sophia, in Constantinople was consecrated and ornamented with beautiful mosaics.
Thanks to the Internet ideas are spreading faster nowadays, but are they really sink into our minds so deeply?
What monument will be raised to commemorate them?
In the picture - external AP, 2.4 GHz antenna Pacific Wireless - VAGI 24016 16dBi.

''The snail'' from the mountains in Cappadocia is never in a hurry, it's been standing here for a few million years.
For bankers and credit card owners time is money, so checking a bank account balance has become a life and death issue. A mobile bank equipped with a SAT antenna in the Gregorian format may solve these problems immediately.

Mosques that have more than 2 minarets can be built only from a sultan's fund. Such a mosque was erected in Istanbul by Suleiman the Great. From a minaret a call by a muezzin to the faithful to prayer is heard 3 times a day.
The slender towers of minarets are also used for more "down to earth" purposes, for instance, antennas.

A maze of antenna masts from a TV tower visible in the foreground is hovering over Istanbul.
In the underground passages of Istanbul there are tanks for catching and storing rainwater, which were built by Byzantine emperors in case of a siege of the city. The cistern in the picture Yerebatan was built in 532, its area - about 100 ares, and the height - a few meters.

The walls of ancient Troy, the city which used to lie on the sea shore. For 3000 years the river Skamander has brought so much mud that one can hardly see a lighthouse standing on the ''modern'' shore with the aid of a 10X zoom lense.