Hawk antenna windex

[PabloPicasso]

I've got through two hawk combined windex/antennas. Most recent one new at the beginning of last season. Had the mast down over the winter and one of the windex indicators was broken by seagulls landing on the now horizontal antenna. So I turned it around on its bracket to be alongside the mast. Not easy to replace the broken windex arm but ebay provided a replacement eventually. Turned the whole thing around on lift day and the antenna simply broke as I attempted to tighten the backing nut (& no, I was not over tightening it!).

What an absolutely woeful bit of kit. I now have a Metz antenna with metal threaded base support, but can't fit a windex to it as it wouldn't clear the mastop lights. I will now have to fit a separate windex.

So my advice is do not by the hawk combined unit, it's utter trash. Is there an alternative better quality combined antenna wind indicator?

 

[Quandary]

Similar problem, the Hawk worked okay but the antenna it sat on was rubbish, on advice here I bought a Metz antenna, reception range at least treble, in places I was picking up Stornoway and Liverpool at the same location. I had a genuine Windex still in its box that came with the boat that I never fitted because the Hawk claimed to do both jobs. I took the Windex apart and used the upside down tapered plastic barrel of a biro as a spacer over the antenna rod with a couple of tiny spherical beads on top to make a bearing. I was worried that it might not be sensitive in very light air but so far (about four years) it has proved as sensitive as the Hawk with the bonus of reliable long range vhf reception.
Salty John who sells the Metz antennae also sold an adapted Windex to go with it, worth contacting him?

EDIT TO CLARIFY
I did not use the tiny Metz bracket but to give clearance mounted the antenna directly behind the mast on a bracket I had made for the Hawk ( strip of duralumin left over from when my youth when I was making engine plates for a Triton) with a hole large enough for the threaded antenna stub. Aluminium strip would do just as well.

 

[VicMallows]

Similar problem, the Hawk worked okay but the antenna it sat on was rubbish

I don't doubt that the Metz is a very good antenna. However MY Vitronix Hawk has been 100% satisfactory also - for over 20 years. The design of a base-loaded whip antenna is pretty well standard. I suggest there was something wrong with the one you had ..... or its installation.

When it comes to the 'windex' bit ..... well that comes down to the seagulls/crows/geese/whatever in your area

 

[captainboo]

The design of a base-loaded whip antenna is pretty well standard.

I had a Vitronix Hawk aerial which was already fitted when I bought the boat. It was not receiving many of the transmissions that my friend was getting with a similar mast height. It has now been replaced by a Metz aerial which has transformed the transmission/reception. The Vitronix aerial relied on a number of 'o' rings to seal the unit together and also the cable connection which had perished allowing water to enter and corroded the internal workings. It also relied on simple spring pressure contact between the internal coil and whip/cable. The Metz is completely sealed unit from the start and a far better design.

I just stripped out the internals of the Hawk aerial, reduced the whip aerial length and used it as a mounting point for the Windex attached to a new bracket at the rear of the masthead. The Metz was then attached on the old Hawk bracket.

 

[PabloPicasso]

I had a Vitronix Hawk aerial which was already fitted when I bought the boat. It was not receiving many of the transmissions that my friend was getting with a similar mast height. It has now been replaced by a Metz aerial which has transformed the transmission/reception. The Vitronix aerial relied on a number of 'o' rings to seal the unit together and also the cable connection which had perished allowing water to enter and corroded the internal workings. It also relied on simple spring pressure contact between the internal coil and whip/cable. The Metz is completely sealed unit from the start and a far better design.

I just stripped out the internals of the Hawk aerial, reduced the whip aerial length and used it as a mounting point for the Windex attached to a new bracket at the rear of the masthead. The Metz was then attached on the old Hawk bracket.

Yes I give a big thumbs up for Metz, vitronix hawk should be avoided. Shame, as the hawk could easily be nice, but they are just of shoddy construction.