Looking at the recent posts it appears that we are back on the topic of antennas:

About 2 weeks ago I posted a thread asking if the antenna that comes on the 04 F150s was retractable. We all know the answer to that is no. I was asking because I was wondering if there is a fix out there for the long fixed antenna scrape your garage header syndrome.

Each time I pull into my garage with my Expedition, which also has a fixed antenna, I scrape the top of the antenna against the header of my garage frame. Marking the header up really bad over the 10,000 times I have parked my rig. I can only assume that I will be having the same problem with my new F150 since it will be around the same size as the Expeditions.

Are there after market antennas that I could replace the other antennas with? Do they look good, easy to install, and how much can one expect to spend on these?

 

Sure you can replace the antenna...pretty cheap too. I have had an antenna on my other F150's that's only about 6-7" tall. Not very expensive (never really looked around for higher end antennas though) I think I spent about 10-15 bucks on the one I had....and it was rubber(ized). So it was super flexible. But it only came up to about the halfway mark on the windshield....so flexibility wasn't a big deal anyway. Most aftermarket antennas come in a universal fit. Reception wasn't a problem at all...I always got excellent reception...but then again I rarely travel too far from the city.

 

You could cut your existing antenna.

I would make it just taller than the truck. It would miss your door and warn if you ever were going to scrape your roof on anything.

I think you can even move the ball to the newly cut piece.

 

I heard it's not a good idea to cut your antenna. They are made in certain lengths to be a multiple of the typical FM radio wavelengths or something like that, and if you cut it you mess that up. Better to just get one that's designed to be shorter.

Like remember before satellite and cable when everyone had a TV antenna on their house? The antenna vanes were certain lengths to match the wavelengths of the stations. When the vanes were the wrong length you got ghosting on the picture because it was getting the same signal twice one wavelength apart.