I always used a (set to length) dipole with the -74, including coax feed and an SWR meter in-line a foot or so from the R/T unit. Once in a blue moon, I used the whip antenna with a ground wire (worked best in an RB-15 out in salt water).
BTW, the "zero beat" adjustment would allow you to tune to a freq off of the nominal 1 kHz increments
I got out in December '78 - it was all PRC-74s then (though the -109s were still in the team boxes in BT)
Hartley