The antenna on my truck is one of those silkscreened windshield kind. Looks kind of like a defroster line. I've had poor reception since it was new. It pulls in a lot of stations, but the quality seems poor. FM stations sound staticky.

Inspecting the antenna, I found a v shaped nick that cuts through about half of the trace on the windsheild. I can almost convince my self that I also see a crack across the remainder. (wishfull thinking maybe)

So, Just how much damage can one of these antennas sustain before causing problems? Is the nick, by itself enough? Would a microscopic, essentially not visible to the eye, be enough? An Ohmmeter should tell me if there is an out and out break. But could it give a false sense of conductance, while there remains a problem producing poor reception?