As anyone tried an Alternate style (SHORT) antenna for their Ultra or Baggers in general and had trouble other than Harley's version

 

Did you have a particular one in mind?
I swapped the whips on my 08 for the newer Harley short, rubber coated ones. I think they are an 09 part number. They work fine. As long as the antenna is designed for the correct wave length, there shouldn't be any issues.

 

The one I use is short rubber like one from autozone for around $10. No problems with it.

 

Generally a shorter motorcycle antenna for AM/FM and CB will yield less sensitivity, all other things being equal. A loss of received signal strength is not much of an issue if you are near the radio transmitter(s), with the signal being strong to begin with. This is all just physics, a law of nature.

My experience with the 'hidden' antenna Harley sells is it's between the HD 'shorty' and standard antennas, with it being closer in performance to the standard antenna.

For a given design, it won't matter much who makes an antenna when it comes to performance. Physics is physics.

Alan