transceiver 40 is provided fig4 transceiver may be in the form of a hand held portable terminal 42 connected to a hand held wand 44 by means of cable 43 in operation as a tubing string that comprises tubulars joined together for example by collars is being moved into position for use wand 44 may be manually held adjacent the tubulars without regard for the specific orientation of a responding device on a given tubular alternatively where the process permits wand 44 may be secured in a stationary position that is adjacent the tubulars and held in that position by any suitable mechanical means as will be evident to a skilled artisan transceiver 40 constantly transmits a radio frequency signal in the direction of the tubing string as antenna 24 on a given collar 10 passes adjacent wand 44 the signal emanating from wand 44 is received by antenna 24 and transmitted to radio frequency identification device 20 device 20 detects this signal and sends a radio frequency response that is transmitted through the antenna 24 so as to be received by transceiver 40 in this manner each tubular joint and its position is identified by using an antenna in accordance with the present invention not only is the orientation of tubulars and therefore responding devices as well as the corresponding transceiver irrelevant but the antenna is able to receive and broadcast radio frequency signals at greater distances than by using only a radio frequency identification device e g up to 15 inches or more with an antenna as compared to 3 inches for an rfid device alone in another embodiment of the present invention that is illustrated in fig2 a bore or hole 11 is provided in collar 10 and.