Gizmotchy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Gizmotchy is an antenna developed in the early 1960s for citizens band radio by the Utica Radio Corporation. In the mid 1960s the patent was acquired by the Charles Radio Company and the antenna is now marketed as the Charles Gizmotchy(tm) [1].
The Gizmotchy is a variation of the Yagi and the turnstile antenna. Each element consists of three rods arranged 120 degrees apart in an inverted "Y" configuration. The driven element is essentially a three-part dipole where two of the rods are driven 90 degrees out of phase. One of these rods is the vertical rod. The third rod is what would be the other half of a regular dipole and points downward 120 degrees from vertical on the opposite side of the support pole from the downward-pointing driven rod. The other elements are parasitic radiators like those of a Yagi except consisting of inverted "Y"s.
Like the Yagi, the Gizmotchy is a directional antenna with a forward gain of approximately 12 dB and a front-to-back ratio of 28 dB. Like the turnstile antenna the Gizmotchy is circularly polarized, making it good for skip communications where the polarization of the signal may rotate.
