I have read about the Miracle whip and wonder whip antennas and decided to take a closer look at them. I remember reading an article about the Miracle whip in Radcom, it turned out it was June 2006.
I found M1IOS website with his take on the antenna and it was his article i had read. http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/m1ios/html/wonder%20whip.htm
So i decided to make one and give it a try, i used a ferrite torroid that i had handy but it is not the correct type which should be an FT140-43 or one of the ones bought from the RSGB. With the one i used i don’t get the full coverage of the one M1IOS made but mine does cover 30meters to 2 mtrs.
I got the telescopic from Maplin and also the 12 way switches, the torroid is a bit fiddly and takes a while to wind but it is worth it.I set up in Moses Gate Country Park, which is in the Bolton area of Lancashire in the North West of England.I attached the miracle whip to the back of the SWR/Power meter and used a short patch lead to connect to the FT817.First i tried the M/whip on tx on the bands and found it was a goo match on 30 - 2 meters :-)So i then set it back on 30mtrs and tuned around, in the country park it is away from buildings etc so the noise was niceand low, not showing at all on the S meter.I listened around but the few QSO's i could hear were not about to end so i moved up to20 meters, 1:1 SWR no problem, some good strong signals heard and i then had a 2 way qrp qso with Thomas, DL1DRA/QRP/Pwho was running 5 watts from an FT817 :-) 559 both ways. I then got a QRZ from a UA3 station and then i changed bands to 17m.I worked SP6PZG in Poland and he gave me 559,Then i worked DL6FAX and got 569.Next i moved to 15 meters SWR 1:1 but no signals on there so moved to 12m again 1:1 swr but no signals so i then moved to 10m again swr 1:1 but there was strong signals across 10 meters and i worked EA5BS and then SM4DDE who gave me 579 and asked for details of the antenna so i described it as a 1.3meter telescopic whip with a switched loading coil wound on a torroid, he said it was doing really great :-). Next i changed to 6 meters and that also had some signals on it and SWR was about 1.7:1 and i worked EA1FF and he gave me 599 very strong signals both ways. So it was a very pleasant and enjoyable couple of hours and i am more than pleased with the results of using the homemade miracle whip :-)
28/JUNE/2010
I took the FT817 with me and the home made miracle whip antenna when i went for a walk before meeting Charlotte from school.
I walked in the open heathland which is set aside by Salford council to walk on and i found a spot where some rocks were and a nice small flat topped one was used to set up the rig and antenna. I tested the antenna on 20-6mtrs and found i could get a low swr on them all. Nothing much on the bands as they were not good but i heard a strong signal on 20m and called him. F6ENI he came straight back to me and we had a chat for about 10 minutes, he was 599 and gave me a 569 but during the several overs he said my signal was peaking S9 at times. not bad for 2 watts and a small whip antenna.
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