I ordered one of these
And the suitable adaptor.
Will be sitting it on top of a coffee can as the ground plane. which should suffice as the coil is quite low.
Supposed to be around 7-9 dBi
Also means I can stuff everything inside the can for outside placement 
Also ordered a YAGI to but thats just to play with.
You said you dont need to go that path but it is the better option for forward gain if you know where to point it and it doesn't need a ground plane.