The 'fishbone' fast wave travelling wave antenna was developed for LHD to provide a capability for rotational transform profile control by current drive. The fishbone antenna is equivalent to two combline antennae stacked vertically. The antenna operates around 75 MHz and excites a wavenumber of 14 m−1 when the phase difference between adjacent current straps is 90°. A test of a combline antenna with plasma load on the TST-2 spherical tokamak suggested the possibility that this type of antenna does not need to be installed in the immediate vicinity of the last closed flux surface. Optimization of the design was performed based on measurements on mock-up antennas and model calculations. In the fishbone antenna, controlled excitation of the even mode (with currents in the top and bottom halves of a current strap in the same direction) is necessary. A predominant excitation of the even mode was realized in the LHD fishbone antenna with simulated loading by selecting an appropriate operating frequency.