In this paper, we present two new sets of basis functions, which we name monopolar RWG and monopolar nxRWG. These sets are derived from the two conventional divergence-conforming and curl-conforming low-order sets, RWG and nxRWG. For a wide variety of moderately small objects, we show the validity of the monopolar RWG and nxRWG Galerkin MoM-MFIE discretizations. We show the performance improvement for the monopolar RWG MoM-MFIE formulation with respect to the conventional choice and the robustness of both conventional and monopolar nxRWG MoM-MFIE formulations. (c) 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.