On the Long Island CW Club mailing list, a fellow asked whether or not he should get insurance for his ham equipment. He writes, “Back when I ran a home brew 6CL6 tube type rig it didn’t matter much. Now — the investment makes me think about the safety of the gear. Any suggestions?
One of the first responses was that the ARRL offers insurance. This insurance covers all of your equipment, including computers and costs $1.40 per $100 of equipment covered, with a minimum premium of $20. There is a deductible, but it’s only $50. It covers equipment in your shack, theft from unattended vehicles, and towers and antennas up to $15,000.00 replacement cost. Our club carries this insurance on our repeater system, and I know at least one club member carries it on his personal equipment.
Two of the folks replying to the original post have had good experiences with the ARRL insurance. One said, “About a dozen years ago lightening struck about a hundred feet from my home and took out 99% of the electronics including the hearing aids I was wearing. I didn’t even notice the deductible after my insurance took care of everything. Just be sure you have a good agent!”
Another replied, “I am a big fan of the insurance available thru the ARRL. While some homeowner policies might cover gear in the house, the ARRL plan covers your mobile gear and portable gear as well. As I do a lot of mobile and portable HF and bring my gear on vacation even when traveling abroad, the ARRL plan is a good fit for me. And it covers full replacement cost.”
Someone else mentioned that he had purchased insurance through Ham Radio Insurance Associates. This seems a bit more expensive than the ARRL insurance. There is a minimum annual premium of $25 for $1,600 of equipment coverage, but you don’t have to be an ARRL member to get the insurance.
Should you get insurance? Well, the first thing you might do is to take stock of your gear to determine how valuable it is. Here’s what one of the respondents had to say:
Once I did an inventory, my “shack” was more valuable than I thought – once I considered replacement value. My insurance agent told me that as long as it was a “hobby” that they would insure my equipment, but we have a $500 deductible on our homeowner’s insurance.
I was on the fence about specialty insurance until I heard the wind whistling past my 34′ tower with gusts up to 70mph one winter night. I decided that if everything was intact by morning (it was) that I’d buy the ARRL insurance and be able to sleep much better at night.
I think that I’m long overdue on coming up with this list for myself. I’m definitely putting this on my ham radio to-do list.
Good article Dan. Most people don’t think about it till after the fact. We hate to admit it but most of us spend some good money on this hobby. I will be reviewing my coverage this weekend.
73, WJ0NF, JohnnyF
Insurance is one of those things you don’t need…until you do. I insure my rigs, computer, tower and beam through the ARRL insurance program. They allow you to list what you want to be insured and even to put a value on it. I could put full replacement value on my old FT-857D if I wanted to.
I find their rates to be reasonable and makes sense to me as my homeowner’s policy is long, involved and complicated and there are likely a dozen reasons why whatever I lost would not be covered. And even then, it carries a $500 deductible. I had a claim on the ARRL policy about eight years ago — lightning zapped the control board in my TS-2000 — and they paid off just as expected. Their coverage is now through a different provider and I have no experience with them.
And hope I never do!
73,
Don N4KC
http://www.n4kc.com
http://www.donkeith.com