Here's a drastic example of what I do with my receivers for a Spektrum radio. I tightly and carefully coil up and stuff my DSM1 short, or DSM2 long antenna into the receiver case it comes in, barely even fits inside. Guess what, it works fine.

The bonus to doing this is that I don't have to mess with antenna wires when swapping a receiver to another RC, plus it's clean looking and won't get damaged.