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Reviews For: Miracle Antenna Mixed Mode Dipole

Category: Antennas: HF Portable (not mobile)

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Review Summary For : Miracle Antenna Mixed Mode Dipole
Reviews: 9MSRP: $110 - $130
Description:
The Mixed-Mode Dipole uses a basic electrical principle: on
any set of conductors, currents can flow in two distinct
modes - common-mode and differential- mode - and they can do
so at the same time without interacting.
To apply this to the MMD, we created a unique Current-
Mode Discriminator (CMD). The CMD operates somewhat like a
common-mode choke, but is engineered to maximize the
separation of these two current modes well beyond
conventional parameters.

In the MMD, the differential signal on the feedline passes
freely through the CMD (with almost zero loss) at one end of
the antenna and continues along the dipole leg (which is
also coax) to the antenna's center feedpoint.. One 'half' of
the antenna current continues on to the end of the antenna,
the other 'half' flows from the center back along the coax
in common mode until it meets the CMD, where the dipole leg
is electrically terminated for any common-mode current.
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.miracleantenna.com
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
0094.9
SEALORD Rating: 2023-03-23
Great for reception as well Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I have the MMD-40 and purchased mine back in 2010. I use this antenna on the ground (D.O.G.) for reception only and it does very well, both as a low noise antenna with good DX ability. I use mine mainly with a Midlands HF-150 and my new Belka receiver. Easy to pack up for trips and no-fuss setup/breakdown. Wish these were still around, but I'm glad I got a hold of one before they closed shop.
N6DMR Rating: 2016-01-13
Great Performer - Love This Antenna! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I am posting this review even though these antennas are out of production.

I bought a 17M version about 8 years ago and had it stored on a shelf until this year. Came across it on a cleanup spree a few months ago right around the time I started to use QRP power. This antenna works on 20m just as well without a tuner.

I put it up on a light telescoping fiberglass pole as a vertical dipole and was totally amazed at how great it worked on just 5 watts. It goes up super fast, needs no ground radials and performs better than a lot of the current coil loaded portable antennas.

Roger Victor VA2ERY was the builder, he was a great guy and I had a number of detailed conversations with him when I was making the purchase. Our hobby lost a great asset when Roger went SK in 2012 and these great antennas stopped being sold.

There is a video on You Tube of Roger demonstrating the antenna and explaining the concept.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIZZCbc3044

Worth a look to get an understanding of this design.

If you can find one of these, grab it. I know I will if I see one for sale.
K8MIC Rating: 2011-10-02
BEST YET ... Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
With my FT-857D and portable power, have tried several high profile vertical HF antennas, but none compare to this product! Mostly used at sea level, in my driveway w/out electrical wires in area. Have QSO'd coast to coast. HIGHLY recommend it for your portable use.
G6EGM Rating: 2011-07-09
MMD-30 Review Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
I was very sceptical about buying one of these antennas for two reasons:

1) because it is an end fed dipole and most other articles on the net are not that complimentary about this style of dipole.

2) I was unsure about whether this antenna could be classed as a multiband antenna seeing as I was brought up to believe dipole antennas are usually for one band only.

I was faced with the problem that I cannot get a decent earth and cannot extend an antenna horizontally from my shack and I live in a noisey environment. For the these reasons the RFD or End Fed Dipole lent itself well as a possible solution.

I spoke with Robert (the proprietor) about my concerns and he answereed my questions promptly and candidly, so I went ahead and purchased an MMD-30 antenna for multiband use with a tuner.

I haven't done substantive comparison checks aginst other antennas BUT I have found the MMD-30 to be an effective multi-band antenna on 40-6 metres with a MFJ 945E Tuner and using an FT817ND I have regularly and consistantly managed QSO's up to a range of 2000 miles ( >2,500 kilometres )on all bands except 40m where they have been to a range of 1,500 miles (>2,000 kilometres).

This is a nice lightweight, simple antenna to carry for portable use or as a low power semi permanent/ permanent antenna that is also a lovely quiet receiving antenna too.

In conclusion RFD or End Fed Dipoles do work and work effectively and I am very glad that I overcame my scepticism and didn't take note of the general negative tone about this design of antenna on various parts of the net. I have recommend End Fed Dipoles to others who have also reported back good results too in their own experience too.

Miracle Antennas are a great company to deal with and I recommend them. (please note I have no connection with the them)

This style of antenna is one of my 3 favourite designs along with doublets and W3EDP's and I use an MMD-30 most of the time portable just hoying one end up into the highest tree nearby. The really great thing being the antenna is only 46ft long.
KB1RXA Rating: 2011-05-29
KB1RXA Time Owned: 6 to 12 months.
Works very well - low SWR across design band - great portable / stealth antenna!

----------------------
Earlier 5-star review posted by KB1RXA on 2011-02-15

If you want to go to the trouble of building this yourself after reviewing all of our fabulous ham literature....then...go ahead! I tried...Good luck.

It works.

Is it worth $100 - always resonant - no scrambling around for your "cheap - I can do that" antenna and with all the soldering and pruning that involves.

Here is my prior review -- and please -- I am not an amateur amateur. It works. Very well!


"Yesterday, while backpack-portable-low power, I generated a 45 minute pileup with this antenna; worked 2 Canadians, 2 Russians, 1 Swede, 1 Hungarian, 1 Jamaican, 1 Dane, 1 Belgian, 1 Italian and a number of US stations. Had to quit only because my battery was getting low! Majority of reports were 5/5 or better. Well worth the investment!"
K2ID Rating: 2011-03-25
Wow! Wow! Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
As someone who had used a home built antenna for most of his ham life, this antenna is more than I expected after my experience with their Miracle Whip. It works well and on 20m I did not need a tuner at all. SWR was very low across the whole band which is more than I could say for my home made one. I have worked all over the world and US on this antenna and received many comments about my strong signal even though the antenna is about 5 feet off the ground!

What I like about this antenna is that it is end feed and they supply 16' of RG174 which just so happens fits nicely in the cracks in my cement walkway so that I can run it across my walk into my trees. It also has not produced any RF in the shack unlike my home built dipole. It works like their video shows and have to say that I like it much more than the Par antennas I had tried in the past for portable work which drove me crazy cutting off wire to get it resonant only to find that when I moved the antenna I had to add wire to get it resonant where I wanted it again plus I could not use a tuner to fine tune it while you can with the MMD although I do not need one.

Exceeded my expectations, works well enough to provide me lots of ham radio fun and is easy to deploy in my CC&R development. I have a six foot wall around my property and I can hang it so that no one can see it and still work a lot of DX. Don't be put off by the marketing hype of their Whip antenna versus its real life performance because this baby works as advertised and lives up to the marketing claims.
N9LVG Rating: 2010-08-03
Really like this antenna Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have the usual city condo antenna restrictions. I have tried slinky dipoles, end fed random wires, and even loaded verticals. I have to say that the MMD17 is the least noisy of all of the above and super easy to deploy. I'm on the third floor of my building and I just hang the antenna out the window. Tunes up great from 40 - 10 and it hears much better than any other antenna I've tried. I am really pleased with this antenna and would recommend for someone in a similar situation. Could be cheaper, could have used LMR-100A instaed of RG-174, and could have been made beefier to handle 100W even off designed band so I gave it a 4.
AE7YD Rating: 2010-07-06
I was skeptical Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
My location is far from good for antenna installation. I have a 18ft tower with a 32 ft telescopic fiber glass pole that holds a 40m shortened inverted V at ca 25ft. After reading the article in qst I wanted to know if it really works.
Last weekend I tried it has a sloper towards north and with 10w SSB I contacted Rorotonga in the Cook Islands, yesterday a special event station in NY celebrating the original 13 states and this afternoon Texas in CW. Ok, no DX but QRP in the back yard. Note also that the Cook Islands are SW from here (South CA) and NY is NE not the best for an antenna directed to North.

I can tune the antenna with my LDG Z11 qrp tuner at a SWR below 2:1 (mostly below 1.5:1) from 80 to 10m and that could be suspicious.

Also, I am concerned about the stress on the RG174 coax between the plastic box and the wire junction with any installation other than vertical.
KC4RP Rating: 2010-06-10
A big surprise Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I am waiting to get the space to re-install mt GAP Challenger at our new house and wanted something to get back on the air with. I bought the 17 meter version since it said it would be able to match 20, 15 and 10 meters as well with a tuner. My IC-7600 can match those bands easily AND 40 meters and 6 meters as well!! I have made several phone, SSTV and PSK/RTTY contacts into Guatemala, Slovenia, Brazil, Spain and other countries and a number of states as well. Its good enough on 40 meters at 50 watts that I have yet to string out the 40 meter version I got. These may stay up even when the Challenger goes back in.