An experimental study of the direct excitation of the torsional Alfven wave in the scrape-off plasma by an antenna designed for Alfven wave heating experiments in the TORTUS Tokamak is described. The antenna incorporated a Faraday shield, and was printed in the plane perpendicular to the toroidal direction, in order to minimize such direct excitation. Wave magnetic field measurements nevertheless indicated strong direct torsional Alfven wave excitation by antenna elements perpendicular to the Tokamak magnetic field lines due to finite frequency effects. The torsional Alfven wave was measured to propagate essentially parallel to the magnetic field lines, except at frequencies close to the ion cyclotron frequency. The excitation efficiency was found to increase with frequency (up to the ion cyclotron frequency) and electron density. The relevance of these results to the Alfven wave heating scheme is discussed.