Antennas are around for decades. People used antennas for radio communications. Usually, the inductors and capacitors are tuned by an electric motor. The technology of direct or conjugate tuning of an antenna by a motorized tuner has been around for a long period of time. Don Johnson and Ben Herr were experimenting in 1991 with tuning a mobile antenna. They come up with the idea that an electric screwdriver would be a great drive mechanism for that kind of antenna. Don liked the idea and designed a type of mobile antenna that uses a modified motor of an electric screwdriver which is placed in the antenna’s lower part. That’s why the antenna’s lower part had to be constructed of tubing with a large diameter. This enhances the antenna’s radiation efficiency to a great extent. These types of antennas are called screwdriver antennas.
A screwdriver antenna is a lot more convenient than a commercial antenna. It has two major advantages. The first advantage is operating convenience. The tuning is made with a simple push button even at highway speed from the comfort of your driver’s seat. You do not have to stop the car, get out, change resonators, or adjust stingers in the antenna top. The second advantage is the high radiation efficiency. There are a lot of articles and discussions about this type of antenna and how to build it on your own. They may be very expensive if you want to buy one, but there is always the possibility of building one.