About Me!

Who am I?

That's a harder question than it might seem.

The short answer is: I'm an old-school computer guy.

I hope this explanation will help you look at the rest of this website through the same lens, allowing many things to make more sense.

To explain who I am beyond that, however, I need to tell you my story and take you back to where it all began.

This story begins in what now feels like a long time ago — about forty years before these words were written. A sweeping change in Turkey's import regulations opened the door to personal computers — and ours was the first generation to encounter this technology firsthand.

The moment I connected my first 8-bit personal computer to a television and turned it on, I was greeted by a dark blue screen and a non-blinking cursor beneath a single word: READY.

Computers and programming have been part of my life ever since.

However, the path that truly shaped my journey — and what I consider my real starting point — was neither a school curriculum nor a career requirement. The real turning point was a community of peers: the Atari Fan Club (AFC).

It was a circle of people my age who were genuinely curious and excited about what computers could do. A community that, after my very first visit, defined who I wanted to be and which world I wanted to belong to.

I remember wanting to be a pilot until then. But I remember much more clearly promising myself to become just like the peers I met there.

Yet it was AFC's culture of sharing and friendship — what is called a "gift economy" today — that left the most lasting impression on me. That environment taught me values I would carry for a lifetime: helping each other, sharing, learning, teaching when needed, and always trying to dig a little deeper.

"I took the red pill, stayed in Wonderland, to find out just how deep the rabbit hole goes."

Those were the years I learned that a low-level language alone means nothing — to actually build something, you had to understand the whole system: memory maps, interrupts, hardware registers etc., how the OS sat on top of it all. Machine language, in its human-readable form called assembly, was just the entry point. And it was the friends I made at AFC who opened that door.

"🎵 I'm runnin' down a dream
That never would've come to me
Workin' on a mystery
Goin' wherever it leads" - Tom Petty

Undoubtedly, Atari itself, the fan clup it hosted, and the other people and places I connected with helped me make significant progress in my knowledge and understanding.

To become even more involved in that world, I began working in my spare time after school when I started high school, simply to put myself at the heart of technology and the information. Due to a strict family rule, I worked entirely without pay; what I gained instead was experience, knowledge, and invaluable opportunities to learn.

In those years, some of what I learned remained a hobby. Some of it turned professional from time to time. Ultimately, that boundary never mattered much. Everything I discovered in those early days laid a foundation that made what followed feel far less foreign.

"First came curiosity, then came knowledge; career came later."

After that, life took me in different directions. At one point, I ran my own business — it didn't work out. I worked in various environments, from small businesses to corporate structures.

Over the years, I took on different roles and responsibilities. But looking back, they all had one thing in common: helping people, sharing what I learned, and trying to understand how things work. Circumstances changed; the instinct never did.

Since the spring of 2025, this period of my life feels like a return to my roots — but this time, I have more time and better tools.

Learning analog electronics and Morse code through amateur radio, designing 3D models, printing and painting others' designs, writing code, producing something through words...

None of these are new directions. They are reflections of the same curiosity — one that has finally found the time and room to breathe.

"🎵 Radio, what's new? / Radio, someone still loves you!". - Queen

A few years ago, I got my CEPT Class 1 / HAREC amateur radio license, and lately amateur radio has become my main gateway into the world of analog circuits and RF.

I make significant use of AI. At the same time, my old friends — books and magazines — continue to guide me as they have for many years. A 2024 ARRL Handbook sits within arm's reach. Without being impatient, I try to learn topics step by step.

Ham radio historical magazine archives on the internet are a true treasure trove for me.

I am learning a lot, especially through the process of developing my own receiver circuit design. Even though I use a DDS + Arduino for the frequency mixer LO input and understand the math behind IQ signals, the digital route feels like a solved problem for me. The analog world is where I want to dig.

I have a modest mini-lab that includes a NanoVNA, a TinySA, and a basic two-channel oscilloscope. Whenever I find time, I tinker with filter circuits, especially crystal filters.

I plan to share what I learn, the tests I run, and the results I reach on this website. This is already one of the main goals of this site, which is inspired by the IndieWeb culture.

I've been planning to buy an ICOM HF transceiver for a while. To be honest, I am a bit afraid that if I do, my passion for building radio circuits might take a back seat — it happened once before, when I bought a CB radio in my youth.

I am 53 years old; I was born and raised in Istanbul and I still live here. Finally, I am the husband of a wonderful woman and the proud father of a young man.

Final Thoughts

I would like to conclude with a quote by Derya Günergin, a retired Staff Colonel of the Turkish Naval Forces, that resonated with me:

At the entrance of sacred temples, there are two pillars that mark the temple's axis. A person's greatest temple is their own life. For the axis of your own temple to be correctly aligned, I wish that those two pillars for you be love and sharing. Only then will your life always point in the right direction. Live with passion, enthusiasm, and freedom.

Thank you for taking the time to read.

Related:

If you are wondering exactly what I am up to these days, the "NOW" page is the right place.

To see what I've been making with my 3D printer, check out the "MAKES" page.

And to learn more about me, you can chat with my "🤖 Personal Web Assistant", an AI assistant I built.