or 330 of the antenna system 310 may be constructed in the same way as the shelf antenna disclosed by burnside et al also inventors of the present invention in a u s patent application ser no 11 750 307 filed on may 17 2007 the radiating elements of the array antenna may be protruding conductive strips coupled to a top plate of the distributed antenna the coupling between the conductive strips and the top plate may be accomplished through a direct electrical connection capacitive coupling or inductive coupling skilled artisan may also appreciate conductive patches or conductive loops may also serve as the radiating elements the conductive patches or the conductive loops may be coupled to the top plate by electrical connection capacitive coupling or inductive coupling fig3 b illustrates that the improved array antenna 310 of fig3 a that is used to read the pallet 130 both the 45 u00b0 and u2212 45 u00b0 polarization signals excite the horizontal and vertical gaps between the containers in the pallet 130 equally well thus both the arrays 320 and 330 of the antenna system 310 of fig3 a are expected to create rfid signals that permeate the pile of the containers even if these containers are filled with large conducting structures in another application two rfid reader antenna systems are used to interrogate a pile of containers one reader antenna system is located on either side of the pile or even on the top and bottom of the pile as well these antenna systems can be connected to the rfid reader system through different ports as a result these multiple antenna systems can interrogate different sides of.