This paper presents the results of an experimental study of the propagation characteristics of magnetoelastic‐surface waves (MESW’s) on the (011¯) surface of a 1.5×0.1‐cm2YIG disk and on the (111¯) surface of a 5.1‐&mgr;m YIG film, and a quantitative analysis of the results. Magnetoelastic‐surface waves were excited and detected by means of meander‐line transducers which were fabricated through standard photolithography techniques. The waves were excited so as to propagate along [100] and [011] directions on the disk and along the [011] direction on the film. Strongest excitation occurred for the magnetic bias field tangential to the surface and parallel to the direction of propagation. The propagation characteristics were studied at 143.5, 235, and 440 MHz. In addition to the MESW mode, other magnetoacoustic modes, which were stronger than the MESW mode under certain conditions, were also observed. Under certain conditions, as many as a dozen of these other modes, with a wide range of velocities both faster and slower than the MESW’s, were observed. Waves propagating along the [100] direction showed a distinct MESW mode. For the lower frequencies the MESW was the strongest mode excited; at higher frequencies some of the other modes were as much as 5 dB stronger than the MESW mode. For propagation along the [011] direction, the MESW was present, but was always accompanied by other strong magnetoacoustic modes with nearly the same propagation velocity. The strength of both types of modes increased rapidly with excitation frequency, in qualitative agreement with the theory of meander‐line excitation. Between 70 and 440 MHz excitation efficiency increased by nearly 30 dB. The experimental results on the disk show that the magnetic bias field required to produce the minimum insertion loss for propagation in the [100] direction was always larger than the bias field for propagation in the [011] direction. An analysis of magnetostatic resonance predicts a difference in the bias field for the two directions of propagation consistent with the measured values. Stripe domains were observed with at least two stable directions in the YIG film. The period of the domains was approximately 4 &mgr;m. MESW’s were excited and detected at a magnetic bias field for which a domain structure had disappeared. These observations differ from those of Volluetetal.