Screwdriver Antenna Controller For Your Smartphone

Pick up any ham radio magazine from the sixties and you will likely see an ad with the Webster Band Spanner mobile antenna mounted on the back bumper of a Corvette convertible. Changing frequency was a matter of pulling over on the side of the two-lane and sliding the whip up or down, which moved a contact along a coil wound inside the antenna body. Then, in a stroke of pure genius, Don Johnson, W6AAQ, and others made the coil moveable, attached an electric screwdriver motor to it, and the screwdriver antenna was born. Now, frequency could be adjusted from the comfort of the front seat.

Now, as then, installation of a screwdriver antenna involves snaking the power cable from the cabin to the battery and the coax and control cable to wherever the antenna is mounted. While crawling around under the dash doing exactly that, we wondered if there