  We consider the class of wireless links whose propagation characteristics are
described by a dipole model. This comprises free-space links between dipole
antennas and magneto-inductive links between coils, with important
communication and power transfer applications. A dipole model describes the
channel coefficient as a function of link distance and antenna orientations. In
many use cases the orientations are random, causing a random fading channel.
This paper presents a closed-form description of the channel statistics and the
resulting outage performance for the case of i.i.d. uniformly distributed
antenna orientations in 3D space. For reception in AWGN after active
transmission, we show that the high-SNR outage probability scales like
$p_\mathrm{e} \propto \mathrm{SNR}^{-1/2}$ in the near- or far-field region,
i.e. the diversity exponent is just 1/2 (even 1/4 with backscatter or load
modulation). The diversity exponent improves to 1 in the near-far-field
transition due to polarization diversity. Analogous statements are made for the
power transfer efficiency and outage capacity.
