English: Drawing of a "long wire antenna", a directional radio antenna used for communication in the high frequency (shortwave) bands, from a U.S. Army field manual. This is actually a type of antenna called a Beverage antenna. It consists of a random length of horizontal wire from 1-2 wavelengths long, terminated at one end by a resistor equal to the characteristic impedance of the antenna, about 600 ohms, with the receiver connected to the other end. The resistor is attached to a second parallel wire below the first, which functions as a counterpoise, an artificial "ground". It is a nonresonant antenna, and so is broadband, sensitive to a wide band of radio frequencies. The main lobe, its direction of greatest sensitivity, is to the right, parallel to the wire, off the end that has the resistor.