Antenna length and loading are more important on the xmit side than the recv side (that's why they warn you not to operate the xmitr without the antenna screwed in).

Basicly, on the recv side, the longer the antenna, the better off you are for range (pulsed digital and the like sometimes suffer in an unbalanced antenna though and you risk flooding the rcvr with more interferance). If you try wrapping the antenna wire around, say the landing gear or some structure, don't if the structure is ferous metal, and wrap excess in figure eight, not loop.

Splat