it will depend on how much room you have.
the suggestions of 33 feet of wire along the wall, ceiling, where ever you 
can, is a good one. Try to get as many linear feet as you can in one 
direction.
you'll want some kind of counter poise...so two pieces of 33 foot wire, 
stretched out as far apart as is physically possible will give better 
results.
as long as the wires don't cross, and don't run paralel to each other at any 
point, you can run them however you can...around corners, through rooms, 
whatever.
if you are interested in receive only right now, then put down, up, as much 
wire as you can fit...use some kind of tuner to find a resonant point for 
the receiver and away you go.
you can use 16 or 18 gage speaker wire, availible almost anywhere for cheap. 
unzip the speaker wire and you get double the length out of the roll.  if 
you measure your bass boards liniarily, or the edges of the ceiling, you can 
probably get 60 or 70 feet of wire in comfortably.
when you want to transmit on it, use a tuner, and a quarter wave counter 
poise for the band you wish to work.

alternatively, look into a vertical multi-band portible antenna such as the 
MP1 super antenna, the buddy poll, the camelion, ham sticks, hussler sticks, 
whatever you can.  any sort of vertical is going to require you to stretch 
out a counter poise though.  Just put the counter poise along the bass 
boards, under them if you have to.
you have to get creative with indoor antennas, and as was said, they are 
always a compremise over a mono-band dipole outside at a half wave above the 
ground.
73
Colin, V A6BKX
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John J. Boyer" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 9:29 AM
Subject: Simple Indoor 40-meter Antenna


> How might I construct a good 40-meter antenna for my apartment? It will
> be used for receiving first, then for low-power transmission when i get
> my license. No wires outside the apartment are possible.
>
> Thanks,
> John
>
> John J. Boyer; President, Chief Software Developer
> Abilitiessoft, Inc.
> http://www.abilitiessoft.com
> Madison, Wisconsin USA
> Developing software for people with disabilities