I have a bunch of antennas in my attic as well as one or two outside. One of the outside antennas is a Mil-Omni, that I use for TV reception. It feeds a multicoupler that just also happens to feed a dozen or so scanners, a few SDR’s and my big old Icom R8600. There is also a hidden 20M dipole along the eaves of the side of my house. OK, so why am I telling you this? You probably already know all this as I have written about it often in other Scanner Tales. Well, this tales is not about the antennas, it is about a bucket.
OK, Rich, you have gone off the deep end now. Well, yeah, I did that many years ago I admit but there is a point to this story, there is even radio content. I have a bunch of those 5-gallon “paint” buckets that they sell at Home Depot and other places. These are large plastic buckets with a wire handle they sell for $5. They have stacks of them when you enter the store and they intend for you to use them as a shopping basket, for which they work exceedingly well. They hope that you will decide to buy it as well when you check out, but if you don’t you can just leave it on the stack at the register.
There is a whole line of products intended for these buckets. They sell canvas tool bags that drape across the bucket, these are popular with the AC repairmen in my area. They sell rotating seats that clamp on to the top to create a handy work seat. But mostly they exist to tote stuff around and collect stuff. I have a couple in my garage I use as trash bins. These were once used to stain my radio cabinet (I told you there would be radio content here!) Since the stain would not come off the inside of the two buckets, when they dried, they were relegated to garage trash use. I also use one of these to take with me around the yard once a week to collect litter, twigs and weeds.
So now, 3 paragraphs in, I will get to what they are really useful for in my radio hobby. When I go up into the attic to work on antennas it is always an adventure. I am old, fat and out of shape, a far cry from the svelte, good-looking and studly guy I was in my younger days. Think Bartolo Colon vs. Ken Griffey Jr…. Going up a ladder and crawling around a hot, cramped, dark and dusty attic is tough enough as it is without having to make several trips up and down the ladder to grab some tool or cable I forgot. I plan these excursions meticulously and stuff my big 5-gallon bucket with every tool, adapter and hardware piece I can ever conceive needing. Most of the time I end up not using half the stuff I bring but that is better than the alternative. If I didn’t bring it I probably would have needed it.
When I do an attic job, I usually bring 2 of these buckets, one with the rotating seat and the other with tools and hardware. If I think ahead, I will put stuff I probably won’t need in the bucket with the seat. This bucket seat allows me to sit somewhat comfortably when working on cables, antennas etc. I used to just flip the bucket upside down and sit on it that way but then all my tools and stuff would fall out, and I would be digging thru 18” of blown-in insulation for the tools and hardware. I have a couple strategically placed nails driven into the joists so I can hang my bucket in places I need to stand to work, that has been very helpful.
My old knees have been surgically repaired more often that I prefer to remember so it is not easy getting up, standing from a seat on a bucket is a lot easier than getting up off the floor. Getting down however, is no problem; it is just a controlled fall. Sometimes I do that without even trying.
When I am working on antennas up in the attic, I often generate detritus like cut-off bits of wire, used up tape, and sweat-soaked paper towels. This all goes in the bucket for later disposal. I tie a piece of rope to the handle as it is easier to pull the bucket up when I get to the attic rather than carry it up the ladder with me, I can then let it down that way as well.
For my exterior antennas I do pretty much the same thing. I have a 24’ extension ladder that replaced my big, old 26’ Little Giant. That Little Giant is flexible but as a straight ladder it is too heavy and unwieldy. The standard 350-pound fiberglass 24’ extension ladder is a lot easier for this former firefighter to lug around and wrangle.
I fill my bucket up with tools, cables, adapters and antenna tape and up I go. I have a huge 12” carabiner that loops around the bucket handle and the other side to either the ladder rung or the antenna bracket coming off the side of my house. This makes it easy to access my tools and supplies. I use another carabiner with a length of rope to pull the antenna up and down, a lot easier that trying to carry it down from the top end of the ladder.
My wife helps me as much as she can. She won’t climb the ladder, and she has learned not to stand too close or under it, lest she get impaled when I drop a screwdriver or drill. She stays a reasonable distance off to the side and steps in to help steady the ladder or grab the bucket as I let it down. When I dropped the ST-2 off the top of the ladder she was out of targeting range and escaped injury, not so much for the ST-2, however. I don’t know how, but both of the long vertical elements broke off when it was dropped. While I have only one of her, I do have another ST-2 that I might pop up there this winter to see how it compares now that I found the issue I was having before, a bad N-connector at the patch panel due to a bend too near the end of the coax.
I have also used my big buckets to relocate a rattle snake from my neighbor’s garage, remediate a stopped-up toilet from that same neighbor’s bathroom (that bucket went out with the trash) and drain the last remains of water from my old water heater when replacing it. I used a couple to collect the salt when the water softener went bad and the brine tank started leaking. But mostly I use them to work on my antennas. I have a half dozen of them, mostly orange “Homer Buckets”, but there is also a nice camo colored one. I used to have two of the camo ones, but I used one to catch that snake, when I brought it out to the desert, I chucked the bucket with the snake as far as I could. The snake went one way, the bucket the other. When I went to get my bucket back the snake slithered back to the same bucket he was so torqued off at being in a minute before. I figured he could have it.
We also used one of these buckets for hiding an auto-tuner for a friend. He has a flagpole antenna in his front yard and had the tuner hidden under a plastic fake rock near the base. The HOA gave him a violation for that as they prohibit “yard art” in the front of the house. We had the landscapers dig a hole near the antenna base big enough to hold a “Homer Bucket”. We mounted the tuner in the bucket and ran the coax, ladder line and 12v power cable out the top. We then sealed it all up and placed it in the hole, covering the hole with a metal sheet. We ran the wires to the house in a small trench and covered the hole and trench with the same granite as the yard is covered in. (Houses here have granite “lawns” instead of grass.) Should he need to service the tuner he can do so easily, just pull out the bucket, slit the sealant and reseal it when he is done. It works great!
These buckets are a handy and versatile solution to many of life’s little problems. They have made my life easier for sure.
OK, Rich, you have gone off the deep end now. Well, yeah, I did that many years ago I admit but there is a point to this story, there is even radio content. I have a bunch of those 5-gallon “paint” buckets that they sell at Home Depot and other places. These are large plastic buckets with a wire handle they sell for $5. They have stacks of them when you enter the store and they intend for you to use them as a shopping basket, for which they work exceedingly well. They hope that you will decide to buy it as well when you check out, but if you don’t you can just leave it on the stack at the register.
There is a whole line of products intended for these buckets. They sell canvas tool bags that drape across the bucket, these are popular with the AC repairmen in my area. They sell rotating seats that clamp on to the top to create a handy work seat. But mostly they exist to tote stuff around and collect stuff. I have a couple in my garage I use as trash bins. These were once used to stain my radio cabinet (I told you there would be radio content here!) Since the stain would not come off the inside of the two buckets, when they dried, they were relegated to garage trash use. I also use one of these to take with me around the yard once a week to collect litter, twigs and weeds.
So now, 3 paragraphs in, I will get to what they are really useful for in my radio hobby. When I go up into the attic to work on antennas it is always an adventure. I am old, fat and out of shape, a far cry from the svelte, good-looking and studly guy I was in my younger days. Think Bartolo Colon vs. Ken Griffey Jr…. Going up a ladder and crawling around a hot, cramped, dark and dusty attic is tough enough as it is without having to make several trips up and down the ladder to grab some tool or cable I forgot. I plan these excursions meticulously and stuff my big 5-gallon bucket with every tool, adapter and hardware piece I can ever conceive needing. Most of the time I end up not using half the stuff I bring but that is better than the alternative. If I didn’t bring it I probably would have needed it.
When I do an attic job, I usually bring 2 of these buckets, one with the rotating seat and the other with tools and hardware. If I think ahead, I will put stuff I probably won’t need in the bucket with the seat. This bucket seat allows me to sit somewhat comfortably when working on cables, antennas etc. I used to just flip the bucket upside down and sit on it that way but then all my tools and stuff would fall out, and I would be digging thru 18” of blown-in insulation for the tools and hardware. I have a couple strategically placed nails driven into the joists so I can hang my bucket in places I need to stand to work, that has been very helpful.
My old knees have been surgically repaired more often that I prefer to remember so it is not easy getting up, standing from a seat on a bucket is a lot easier than getting up off the floor. Getting down however, is no problem; it is just a controlled fall. Sometimes I do that without even trying.
When I am working on antennas up in the attic, I often generate detritus like cut-off bits of wire, used up tape, and sweat-soaked paper towels. This all goes in the bucket for later disposal. I tie a piece of rope to the handle as it is easier to pull the bucket up when I get to the attic rather than carry it up the ladder with me, I can then let it down that way as well.
For my exterior antennas I do pretty much the same thing. I have a 24’ extension ladder that replaced my big, old 26’ Little Giant. That Little Giant is flexible but as a straight ladder it is too heavy and unwieldy. The standard 350-pound fiberglass 24’ extension ladder is a lot easier for this former firefighter to lug around and wrangle.
I fill my bucket up with tools, cables, adapters and antenna tape and up I go. I have a huge 12” carabiner that loops around the bucket handle and the other side to either the ladder rung or the antenna bracket coming off the side of my house. This makes it easy to access my tools and supplies. I use another carabiner with a length of rope to pull the antenna up and down, a lot easier that trying to carry it down from the top end of the ladder.
My wife helps me as much as she can. She won’t climb the ladder, and she has learned not to stand too close or under it, lest she get impaled when I drop a screwdriver or drill. She stays a reasonable distance off to the side and steps in to help steady the ladder or grab the bucket as I let it down. When I dropped the ST-2 off the top of the ladder she was out of targeting range and escaped injury, not so much for the ST-2, however. I don’t know how, but both of the long vertical elements broke off when it was dropped. While I have only one of her, I do have another ST-2 that I might pop up there this winter to see how it compares now that I found the issue I was having before, a bad N-connector at the patch panel due to a bend too near the end of the coax.
I have also used my big buckets to relocate a rattle snake from my neighbor’s garage, remediate a stopped-up toilet from that same neighbor’s bathroom (that bucket went out with the trash) and drain the last remains of water from my old water heater when replacing it. I used a couple to collect the salt when the water softener went bad and the brine tank started leaking. But mostly I use them to work on my antennas. I have a half dozen of them, mostly orange “Homer Buckets”, but there is also a nice camo colored one. I used to have two of the camo ones, but I used one to catch that snake, when I brought it out to the desert, I chucked the bucket with the snake as far as I could. The snake went one way, the bucket the other. When I went to get my bucket back the snake slithered back to the same bucket he was so torqued off at being in a minute before. I figured he could have it.
We also used one of these buckets for hiding an auto-tuner for a friend. He has a flagpole antenna in his front yard and had the tuner hidden under a plastic fake rock near the base. The HOA gave him a violation for that as they prohibit “yard art” in the front of the house. We had the landscapers dig a hole near the antenna base big enough to hold a “Homer Bucket”. We mounted the tuner in the bucket and ran the coax, ladder line and 12v power cable out the top. We then sealed it all up and placed it in the hole, covering the hole with a metal sheet. We ran the wires to the house in a small trench and covered the hole and trench with the same granite as the yard is covered in. (Houses here have granite “lawns” instead of grass.) Should he need to service the tuner he can do so easily, just pull out the bucket, slit the sealant and reseal it when he is done. It works great!
These buckets are a handy and versatile solution to many of life’s little problems. They have made my life easier for sure.
