Not to take away from your build Tony but what Zor said about antenna leads is not the norm for 2.4 reception every since it's inception. Also with the satelite antennas on the 2.4 systems sometimes as many as 3 or 4 located throught the plane it's almost impossible not to get the signals. Air waves will pass through almost anything including our own bodies, ezcluding lead and our planes can hardly create a shield to prevent radio waves from entering their bodies. I guess what I'm saying is that directional antennas do pick up signals better and that is one of the reasons for the satelite antennas on the 2.4 systems because the plane is never in direct alignment to the transmitter. In all, whats the point of a given portion of antennas sticking out of the plane at any point when a good majority of the time it's not going to be facing the transmitter anyway.
Probably not the place to discuss this, it's very debatable to say the least.
Leroy