30 for example without intent to delimit the invention a vacuum system may be used to draw antenna ends into the slots 24 also situated within each slot 24 respectively are push rods 32 34 push rods 32 34 are mounted through the support body 12 and reciprocally move in an axial direction within each slot 24 accordingly the push rod ends within the slots 24 move reciprocally toward and away from the wider end of a respective slot 24 as discussed an rfid tag having a dipole helically wound steel wire antenna is the target of apparatus 10 the wire antenna ends 40 42 extend from the transmitting and data storage electronics 38 in a generally co axial arrangement the tag 36 may be one of many tags in a bin or other storage medium so situated tags 36 tend to nest and tangle and may not be in a readily accessible orientation the invention is intended to pick an individual tag 36 from such an environment and transport the picked tag to a final or intermediate destination in the case of an rfid tag incorporated within a tire for example the tag may be picked and placed on green rubber components fig6 d 6f illustrate such a target tag receiving body 44 having a surface 46 on which the tag is intended to be deposited with reference to fig6 a 6f operation of the tag handling apparatus 10 will be explained fig6 a illustrates alignment of the apparatus 10 with a target tag.