I'm looking for a replacement antenna for Verizon Jetpack 7730L Mobile hotspot that does not need a ground plane due to increasing incidence of non-magnetic vehicle bodies. Could OD6-700-BLK antenna need a ground plane to meet it's stated performance?
There are many styles of omnidirectional antennas such as monopoles, dipoles, etc. Monopole antennas require a ground plane. If you take a dipole antenna and get rid of one half of the dipole you get a monopole --- the ground plane “reflects” the radiation and acts like a mirror image for the dipole section you got rid of. Dipole antennas do not require a ground plane. This antenna (OD6-700-BLK ) is made up of many dipoles stacked on top of each other and so does not require a ground plane
What principle of design is this antenna (some folks had told me I needed a dipole).For a solution that augers well with RadResponder connection needs, I want to ensure I got a smooth pitch
Yes this is a dipole antenna. To be precise this is a collinear array antenna which is an array of dipole antennas -- so internally several dipole antennas are mounted so that the antenna elements are parallel and collinear (on the same axis) which is what allows for the higher gain. They do not require a separate ground plane.