Well this is going to sound strange but here go's. Can I wrap my antenna with electrical tape or paint it, will it affect the performance of the antenna? I have a meter so tuning it won't be a problem. The reason is my antenna is white and doesn't match anything on my truck. I think it's an eyesore, but it's the only antenna I could find around here. Here's a pic of my tuck with the antenna.

Has anyone done anything like this before if so how did it work afterward?

 

you can paint it black..its a firestik right?? its wrapped in a plastic sort of.. yeah just spray paint it, but NOT THE TIP

 

No it's just a cheapo from radio shack. Yeah it's wrapped in something either plastic or vinyl. Why not the tip?

 

well if its coated in the vinyl/plastic then yeah why not? it wont hurt nothin... mine has a tunable tip (metal piece at the top) if i painted that i think it would hurt my reception... i dunno for sure about the tip...

the answer is yeah paint it... but i would not paint the top 1 inch as that is the part designed for receiving transmissions

 

As long as you don't use metal flake, or paint with any kind of conductive properties it will work fine. I have done that myself in the past to custom match the whip to my trucks. As far as the tip, if it has a rubber cap over it, I wouldn't paint over that, if the color don't match they sell all colors of replacement caps at truck stops, etc. I've even painted large base antennas for my ham radio a "camouflage" pattern to hide them among trees when I lived in places that weren't "radio-operator friendly", lol.

 

buy like a 3' peice of shrink wrap tubing in your choice color. dont do anything to the cap. just leave it what ever color it is.

 

You can paint it just dont use any paints with high metal contents for pigments. Best is just plain old black since it just uses carbon black as the pigment. I painted my 108" whip, spring, and mount with krylon semi-flat black. Or as Old Black Cat suggested find some heat shrink large enough to go over the antenna and shrink it down.

 

Thanks for the replies I never thought about the heat shrink. I'll try that tomorrow and let you now how it works. If that doesn't work flat black it is.