I've had excellent coverage from my insurance company for lightning and
tower damage over the years. No raise in rates. I have only a small to
moderate deductible. I am extremely pleased with the insurance coverage.
73, Bob - W3YY
-----Original Message-----
From: TowerTalk [mailto:towertalk-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of
krgoodwin@comcast.net
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2020 2:48 PM
To: towertalk@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Insurance
ARRL insurance is a marine policy, you state a value for a particular asset
and that's your insurance, no debate allowed on a valid claim. It isn't
cheap but there is no downside other than the effort of filing a claim. I
kind of remember that you're not necessarily allowed to under insure where I
think you had to insure for 80% of the fair market value. Many years ago
you had to insure the entire station's value but that is no longer the case,
you insure specific pieces of serial numbered equipment. I insure the just
the expensive stuff at its new purchase value since for example, lightning
damage to my keyer wouldn't be a big deal. Also note that a direct hit to a
tower (of reasonable size) is a low probability situation, Damage is far
more likely to come thru the cable, telephone and power lines or be induced
by a nearby (1000 feet) hit which raises the ground potential and you start
seeing energy come up the ground line if you don't have a single-point
grounding system.
I can't believe anybody would use home insurance on a tower loss if it were
covered. The deductible alone on my policy would pay for my entire amateur
radio station. Downsides from making a claim, it stays on your record and
will thus impact any cost negotiations if one were to change policies in the
future. Insurance companies don't want to take on customers with claims on
their records. For a small claim against a house's value, I've never seen
where an insurance company didn't make back a small claim payout in 4 - 5
years with their rate increases. On the other side of the equation, when I
took a nearby lightning hit it blew out all sorts of things (HVAC, Security
System, TVs, telephones, HiFi and major parts of the amateur radio station).
In this case it was a definite claim situation (loss was substantial). In a
few cases where an exact replacement was no longer available, I initially
fought using the insurance company's recommended supplier but after a few
go-rounds, they actually came up with a better replacement and had definite
expertise for the equipment in question. There is no longer any customer
loyalty in the insurance business (ask me why I know) and it has gotten to
the point where you re-bid all of your insurance policies every year. I
can't take that much pain and have begun to consider using a broker to
handle it. Self-insurance is looking better every year if the XYL would
ever allow it. Ken K5RG
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