[TowerTalk] Why insurance companies hate Florida

[K8RI on Tower talk]

Insurance and particularly insurance for towers and radio equipment can be 
quite important and I'd guess that for this group a good percentage of us 
have sizeable investments in our antenna systems.

Although many of those same people put up their own systems, myself 
included, it may not always be possible to do our own work. When that 
happens even "fixing" and antenna is going to get expensive.  It takes about 
7 hours "on the tower" just to get to the top arrays spend maybe an hour on 
them and then get the array back up.  It'd take two climbers, or about 14 
hours of pay just for the labor.

Of course insurance does not take care of normal maintenance items and these 
would be out-of-pocket expenses.  OTOH a severe ice and/or wind storm taking 
out the antennas would not only require the tower time, but a crane (with 
extension boom) for a day with the assumption that the new antennas and mast 
replacement would be ready to go.  Now we are looking at two climbers for a 
couple of days plus a crane and operator for a day.

So we are looking at well over $1,000 for the antennas (probably closer to 
$2,000), on the order of 10 to 20 hours assembly time on the ground, finding 
and procuring a new 44' chrome molly mast @ $500 plus, as a guess $2000 
labor for climbing, about $1,000 to $2400 for the crane plus $500 to $800 
for the operator, not to mention the damage to the driveway and landscaping 
from the crane. So we are looking at close to $5,000 just to replace some 
relatively ordinary antennas. With a StepperIR, or large HF antenna I could 
have that much in the antenna alone and many on here apparently have far 
*more* invested in their antenna systems than I.

It can be difficult to get an big antenna system insured and the insurance 
company may want to see a professional installation with engineering specs 
before they'll consider issuing a policy.  Now, move into a high risk area 
like Florida or the Gulf coast and you are pretty much on your own.

Roger Halstead (K8RI and ARRL 40 year Life Member)
N833R - World's oldest Debonair CD-2
www.rogerhalstead.com
> Scott,
>
> Although this list is primarily for the topic you describe, a project
> frequently has incidental things related to the project that are not
> directly related to the nuts and bolts of the project. Things such as
> permits, neighbors, court decisions, and insurance. Although not directly
> related, I think this topic could be related to towers as an incidental. 
> Of
> course it has taken a life of it's own at this point, but things will 
> simmer
> down soon I'm sure.
>
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