Ham Radio Equipment Insurance

I recently added some amateur radio equipment to my shack and started to look at the overall investment I have in the hobby and realized that it was time for me to look at how I manage my risk in this area.

While going through this, I started to think about how this investment would be protected from and insurance perspective.

• I use my equipment at home, transport it in my vehicle, and I operate at portable locations. At times I am also transporting my equipment for portable in my vehicle. I wanted a policy that would cover me in all of these situations.
• My deductible for my home and auto insurance has grown to be larger than some of my individual components. Should I have a loss, those policies may not cover most of the loss, and I would end up not making a claim because of the small amount of reimbursement I would ultimately have.
• I wanted to work with a company that understands ham radio equipment and would reimburse me at the replacement value.

I looked at coverage from the following two companies:

• ARRL Insurance Program from Risk Strategies – www.arrlinsurance.com
• Ham Radio Insurance Associates – www.hamradioinsurance.com

(Information below is current as of 1/29/2023)

ARRL Insurance Program

• Coverage is offered at $1.40 per $100 of equipment insured
• Minimum premium is $20
• Antenna/towers/rotators are covered
• $50 Deductible
• Covers computer hardware/hard drives/printers
• Theft from an unattended vehicle is covered
• Equipment inventory (Description/Make/Model/Serial Number/Value) is required

The ARRL Insurance Program website is very basic, with little other information. This program does also offer coverage for ham radio clubs.

Although it does state that this coverage is only available to ARRL members, I do not recall being asked if I was an ARRL member.

Ham Radio Insurance Associates

• Coverage is offered at $1.50 per $100 of equipment insured
• Minimum premium is $25 for $1,600 of equipment insured
• Antennas/towers/rotators can be covered for mechanical breakdown and electrical damage for an additional .5%. Replacement value for antenna/towers is available for 3% of the antenna/tower value.
• $50 Deductible for equipment / $250 for antennas and towers
• Covers computer hardware and $1,000 of software if you insure a computer (automatically added)
• If you insure less than $5,000 of gear, there is no requirement to provide an inventory

Ham Radio Insurance Associates has a less modern-looking website. However, it contains more information on how they differentiate themselves from your homeowner’s policy. Ham Radio Insurance Associates company was started by a long-time ham radio operator, Bill Hill, W3WH, and they now have over 25 years of experience insuring ham radio equipment.

My Decision

I did not look at these policies from the antenna/tower perspective because I do not have large antennas or towers to insure. So my decision was based on insuring my ham radio and computer equipment.

I chose the ARRL Insurance Program mainly due to the ease of enrollment via their more modern web page. It was an easy process, and via the online portal, I could add additional equipment to my policy easily by just paying a prorated amount for the new equipment.

However, after reading more online reviews (eHam.net Reviews) about Ham Radio Insurance Associates, I think I will contact them at renewal time.

Conclusion

If you take anything away from this post, I can’t stress enough how important it should be to inventory your shack and put a replacement value to all of your items, especially the equipment you travel with/take portable on a regular basis. I was shocked by my total investment. (Please don’t tell my wife.)

Once you have that inventory, you can decide how important it is to augment your coverage with this additional type of insurance.

I have included an Excel template I use to keep track of my equipment inventory – Ham Radio Inventory Template.