[TowerTalk] Field day, temporary towers, and liability insurance

[jimlux]

NE6V wrote:
> 
> Have a great day~ Field day is fast approaching~ Are you and your club 
> ready?
> 73
> de
> NE6V

And the recent messages about insurance (focusing on insurance in case 
of destruction of the tower) prompt the following questions..

what about liability insurance for towers? What about in a temporary 
installation (like field day)?

More and more places where one might want to set up are asking for 
insurance certificates (especially if you want to use "public lands", 
like a city park or national forest).

Leaving aside the insurance certificate, what if your temporary tower 
falls down, or someone gets hurt while "iwo jima"ing the tower up? (see 
the pictures in QST of a bunch of hams in flipflops and no hardhat 
standing under the tower as it's being pushed up)


Is this something that your Homeowner's Liability will or should cover? 
If you were doing FD by yourself, and wind knocked it over onto a 
bystander, perhaps?  What if there's a "club" involved, either informal 
or formal? (ARRL does have a club liability insurance scheme, for $1M)

These days, if you go to the emergency room, your insurance company 
sends you a letter a few days later asking:
  "was this the result of an injury?
  did the injury occur at your home? your work? anyone's place of 
business? a public facility?

   If anything other than your home, please provide the owner or 
responsible party's name and address, and insurance carrier if known."


  Clearly, they are looking to potentially go after these other folks 
for your treatment costs. (No wonder the cities and land owners are 
looking for certificates of insurance)

Re, arrl insurance.. the webpage at arrl says:
Claims arising from activities of any participant in any game, contest, 
race or sporting event, including practice, are also excluded.

Is Field Day a "contest"?

http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/insurance/club_liability.html