The "tip" is still there and is still the active bit of the aerial even if, visually, there is nothing there to make it look different.
As frequencies rise, wavelengths shorten. Aerials are either the wavelength, or, if that is not practical, a nice simple fraction of that wavelength to take advantage of the harmonic effect.
A 27MHz aerial, ideally, would be 12.22 metres long (speed of light, 330,000KM/S, divided by the frequency in Hz), but this is normally considered impractical. In practice, they tend to be the right length for a 4th or 5th harmonic (just keep dividing the wavelength by 2 that number of times).
On a 2.4GHz set, there is an extremely high frequency which gives a very short wavelength, and that active inch or so represents the actual tuned wavelength.
The rest of the lead is a coax, intended to allow the signal into the radio while minimizing the chance of an interfering signal getting in while giving the chance of having the radio where you want it and the aerial where its going to work. The downside of this is that some wanted signal is lost in the length, the longer, the more loss. Another point is that the length of the shielded bit is fairly critical - that, too, is tuned to be a match to the frequency.
Thats why it pays to read the instructions and believe them.
