Miracle Whip Clone

I had seen and read about the Miracle Whip antenna in various magazines and email groups. Some people seemed to praise it and other put it down. I never thought alot about it. Then one day while reading QRP-L I believe it was KL7R posted his version of it. It was very simple, and he seemed to be having good luck with it. I thought I'd try it. I already had a 6ft whip laying around all I needed to do was to stop by Radio Shack and pick up a 3 watt Rheostat. The antenna is very simple, just mount the whip to a box or piece of PCB material. I pretty much copied what KL7R did so I take no credit for it. I mounted the whip on a piece of 1 3/4 x 3 1/4" PCB material. On one side I put electrical tape to insulate the whip from the board and drilled 3 holes. I passed a tie strap thru these holes and over the whip which secured it to the board. In one corner I drilled a hole and put a PL-259 over it. Then above it I mounted the rheostat.  One lead of the rheostat goes to ground, the center connector to the center of the PL-259, and the third connector of the rheostat goes to the whip. Thats it, very simple. Here are a couple of pictures of it. The orginal article for the Miracle Whip Antenna appeared in the July 2001 QST magazine.

Front view

Rear View

The picture to you left shows it in use. So far I've made contacts with it on 20, 15, and 17m with it just sitting on the desk as you see it. Most of the contacts have been on PSK my favorite mode, but several have been on CW and SSB. You can also hook it right up

to the coax connector on the back of your rig for portable operating. I have done this with my FT-817 on our back deck, but right now its just too cold for outdoor operating. For operating on 15m and up I use it just as it is, but for 20m clipping a 2-3 ft long wire on the whip seems to help. So far I have not used a ground or counterpoise wire on it altho I'm sure it would help. This little antenna will never take the place of a full size one but it makes a nice portable antenna for when you don't have time to put up something better. I'm still amazed everytime I make a contact on it. I have come across other Miracle Whip type clones on the internet and I'm trying to get permission to add their links here, so stay tuned for more. At the present time I've got 11 states worked with it sitting on the desk.

G4FON's Mirale Whip Antenna