Dipole antenna with no ground plane

[Birdseyeview]

Has anyone installed the ACS dipole antenna in their kitfox? The ACS ad says that it is best mounted internal to the skin and requires no ground plane. It also is claimed to outperform all externally mounted coms antennas. Pretty lofty claims but is it true? The Spruce ad shows a flexible strip of something (assume metal) 43" long and about an inch wide with the BNG connector in the middle of the strip. It is attached to a piece of wood that is attached diagonally to opposite corner side frame stringers behind the cockpit. So it is positioned at a 45 degree angle in the plane of the propeller. Reasonable price tag too. Some real world experience would be very interesting to hear about if there's any out there.

[HighWing]

I am curious about comments as well. In the real olden days, I was a Ham Radio operator and the dipole antennas were favored when long distance directional communication was desired. I guess this explaines somewhat the diagonal orientation of the antenna mounting. The best communication will be in the directions perpendicular to the antenna with significant reduction in transmit and receive power in the directions of the long axis.

[rainbird]

I mounted one of those vertically in the rudder about 4 inches FWD of the aft edge of the rudder. I notched the ribs to make the ante a flush with the rib surface and glued it in place. Of course do this before covering the rudder. I ran one piece of coaxed from the radio to the antenna. A 4” round access is necessary to connect the coax to the antenna.
My plane only has 10 hours on it but it works good both in the air and on the ground. On the ground I can clearly hear another airport 50 miles away with mountains in between.

[HighWing]

Sounds like a winner. Mounted vertically it would provide the strong signal in the directions most desired.

[Birdseyeview]

Rainbird - thanks for the response. This does sound like a winner on a number of fronts. I noticed that there are two types of connector orientations. Did you have a preference or would either one work in a similar install as yours?

[rainbird]

I used the one with the connection coming out the side, with it pointing forward. I drilled a hole in the elevator cover with a grommet then a small loop to allow rudder movement then thru a small reinforcement hole and back to the antenna

[896tr]

I did the same as Rainbird and from inside my hanger I could hear LAS ground from 55 miles away on the other side of Mount Potisi. Transmit was increased dramatically also.

[Birdseyeview]

Your experiences are showing excellent results and confirming the ACS claims. Did you mount yours vertically in the rudder or in the vertical stabilizer or somewhere else?

[Mesteve]

Why the rudder and not just the vertical stabilizer? Would eliminate the need to have moving wires and a failure point.

[n85ae]

I built my own dipole's out of copper tubing and replaced the Archer wingtip
antennas I had previously been using for my VOR, and GS antennas, and my
range is significantly better.

The ground side of the dipole is between the spars, and the other end stretches
out into the tip.

I had wondered myself for a long time how they would work, and tried it one
day and was quite surprised how much better they work.

Jeff