a prior art tag comprising a dipole or loop antenna is about 6 in a maximum direction discouraging the application of such tags to small items such as food or drink containers and small boxes the tag of the present invention is about 1 5 inches square at 915 mhz for convenient application to small containers it is known that the conventional dipole antenna oriented in a horizontal direction exhibits a radiation pattern including a vertical radiation null see fig4 a depicting a dipole antenna 80 and a radiation pattern 82 having a null region 84 thus a prior art tag including a dipole antenna exhibits a radiation null with the orientation of the null dependent on the orientation of the antenna within the tag and the orientation of the tag on the tracked item in any case there exist certain relative orientations of the tag and the reader where the communications signals appears within the null of the tag antenna reducing the received signal intensity at the tag and reducing the transmitted signal intensity from the tag as a result the signal intensity may be below a usable threshold an antenna constructed according to the teachings of the present invention presents a more uniform isotropic pattern such as a.