I skimmed over the ARRL antenna book. From there i understand, that an
antenna is either complete (dipole) or it relies on ground, either
natural or artificial (counterpoise, radials).

Given that, i wonder what to think about a half wave antenna like the
SOLARCON ANTRON 99 without radials.

Most of these antennas have an included 1:9 matcher, why?

How does such an antenna work anyway? Is there no ground required to
operate such an antenna? How can they work without ground?

Regars,
Johann