nice, i'll add 'gimmmick' to my vocabulary

. now i've got critter, gimmick, gizmo, thingy and n.e.e.d ( non explainable electronic device ). all this can be chained together with words like weird, wicked, magical, mysterious to make it even more attractive.
anyway the shown critter is nothing more than a kind of combined filter of L, R, C in a very small scale. when i tried to stretch the wires out, which was the same as removing the critter ( houdini style: now it's there, now it's not ), then i began to hear mixing of different channels, so it had a purpose of focusing on one channel. unfortunately i was not lucky, when trying to make a working critter again.
gio, i guess you're refering to the ozark, where the gimmick is inserted. this one must be seen as a cap and only a cap, because both ends of wires are not connected ...or is it (?) because it could also act as a sort of small antenna. it's not encapsulated.
the critter is connected an must be seen as both a coil, cap and resistor combination, as i see it.
update: right now i'm working on a better loop antenna build on a wooden frame, instead of the broken fishingrods.