Jeep? I'd go for the 102" whip and tuner, or a set of tuned hamsticks
on spring mount. Wouldn't even consider the screwdriver unless you
always stay on the pavement and don't live in an area with trees next to
the highway/street. Now here's why...

I have a Yaesu FT-857 with the digital option (nearly the same as the
857D, which is newer) and when I initially installed it, I had the Yaesu
Atas-120 Screwdriver, which I mounted on a "rollbar loop" behind the cab
on my Toyota Tacoma 4x4 pickup. It worked fine, auto-tuning under
command from the 857 merely by pressing the tune button, for bands from
40 meters up (even underway at speeds up to 55, which is the speed limit
here in Hawaii). However, I eventually took if off after replacing the
whip three or four times (the last time, I drilled out the mount for a
larger diameter whip from a hamstick antenna). Yep, you guessed it
already, overhanging trees killed the whips, over and over.

The other problem I had was that I had to re-solder the "matching base"
to it's internal PCB twice, as vibration would cause the solder joint to
fail. Nothing fatal, but clearly a pain in the butt.

After putting up with the issues of periodic soldering and whip
replacement, I moved to a Hamstick mounted at the left rear corner of
the truck, using 1 1/2" square steel tubing bolted to my hitch receiver.
The tubing has a 3/8-24 adapter connected to it, with about 18" of
pipe with another adapter, and a spring on top with a quick disconnect
for the ham sticks. Moving it up 18" from the bumper level made the
hamstick get out better, and gave them both a wider bandwidth and lower
swr, but of course, they had to be retuned when I added the 18" pipe
extension. I've had the whip bend back a bit in the wind, and at
"passing speeds" the entire hamstick leans back about 20 degrees or so,
but still gets out just fine. I haven't broken a whip on the hamstick
yet, though it does take a minute or so to pull over, jump out and swap
antennas to do a band change. Oh yeah, going through a drive-through
gets me some really wierd looks if I forget to hop out and unplug the
whip, because it drags over the ceiling of their drive-through awning if
I don't (looks sort of line the power bar above a bumper car at that
point). I keep the bands of choice (usually 40, 20 and 15 or 17
depending on mood) in the pickup bed, so I don't need to mark the whip
to make them fit inside. Normally run on 40 meters because we have a
daily net here on 7.088 at 0200 Zulu. (4 pm local time in Hawaii).
Bandwidth on 80 is pretty narrow, but usable if you have a relatively
narrow interest there. The 40 meter and higher frequency bands get out
pretty well, I've had contacts to mainland US (2300 miles minimum) on
40, with world class contacts (Russia, Australia, South America, Japan,
etc.) on 20 meters, and up. Used to talk to east coast on 10 meters in
the morning hours a couple of years ago, but haven't been out in the
truck much lately, working on building a house right now...

Another thing about the screwdriver: When I had the Atas-120 screwdriver
on, I made it a snap-lock mount, so I could fold it over the bed of the
truck when I parked in the garage. It also snapped over when I forgot
to lower it before I drove into the garage, so I didn't kill the antenna.

If you ever enter a parking garage you'll have to have a way to fold or
remove the screwdriver or youll kill it. A jeep with a 102 can just be
pulled over and held down with a short cord you can remove after you get
back outside.

KE5MBX wrote:
I'm planning to get a Yaesu FT-857D and operate mobile HF on as many
bands as possible. I see two options so far for my Jeep Wrangler- a
102" whip with a tuner or a screwdriver antenna. Which is the better
way to go?