My initial plan in the spring of 2015 to use Carl Turek's dish didn't work out.  He needed it back so he could "hide" a HAM antenna from his HOA.  I put the gold Radio Astronomy Program on he back burner until I could figure out a way to accomplish the required Galactic portion.

I found out contact information for and getting trained on the Green Bank 40' dish from Terry Trees in the spring of 2016.  As a result I went to the 2016 Green Bank StarQuest and had the opportunity to build my own Itty Bitty in a session with Tom Crowley from S.A.R.A.  Brian Tobias and I were camped next to each other and pretty much worked together on the project build.  Constructing the kit followed the directions at http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/docs/ibtmanual2.pdf/.  The build with the S.A.R.A. kit  went well and eight people made their own IBTs.  There was a wide range of DIY skills so some were much slower, but Tom had the needed tools and has the process down to a science.  A big plus is that his wife is a saint.   The only problem encountered was the plywood disk for the tape measure scale were too big...37" circumference, not 36".  Some people glued anyway for what would b a 370 degree circle, but I opted to use a pencil and make my own 360 degree marks as shown in the picture to the right.

Part of the building session was to take the IBT outside after completion and test it.   A few people had problems, but mine worked first time out.  After nulling out the detector while pointed at the blank sky,  I discovered the sweet spot where the Sun's shadow needed to be and mine worked like a champ...beeping like crazy when pointed at the Sun.     Putting eight of these on the Sun at the same time really makes a racket.  As noted in the various on line references, point the IBT at buildings, people, or trees also causes the signal to rise. The signal from the trees were obvious, but it was interesting to discover that the Green Bank Visitor Center  in the shade or my hand could cause the detector to go off.   I didn't take any pictures of the construction because I didn't take a camera along on the trip due to the Green Bank restrictions.

Will I get any real data from the dish?  Probably not, but it is fun to play with.  I do see it being used as part of our club's daytime solar outreach, particularly being used to get people to realize that there is more to light than meets the eye.

Between the initial build and the next "official" day of use I had the IBT out numerous times including as a prop at a Solar Outreach day at Discovery Ridge Elementary School.  It is sad to say, but every time they schedule our club for daytime solar activities we get rain and clouds.  I ended up inside talking about Radio Astronomy and the Itty-Bitty made a nice model.

The August 2017 eclipse passes through the western and southern suburbs of St. Louis.  Friend Don Ficken organized the "St. Louis Solar Eclipse Expo" for over 5000 people at Queeny Park about 10 minutes from the house.  Don wanted some club members to set up solar scopes outside to give the public views.   My original plans were to bring my 50mm Lunt THa and a funnel scope.

The  weather forecast for the day called for early rain and clouds so at the last minute I thought I'd bring along the IBT in case the clouds were thick.  I figured that a radio telescope could "see" through the clouds if they were too thick for normal scopes.  As things worked out I was partially correct and the iBT did get a bit of workout when the scope views were dismal.  So much so that I had to change batteries twice.

I used two different procedures to help the public (they did the actual hands on) locate the sun in the IBT. 

• If any shadows could be seen, I showed them what to expect to hear by waving my hand in front of the dish to get the beep and then showed them whereto locate the "sweet spot" on the arm. 

• If the clouds were too thick for shadows I showed them how to find the needed Alt/Az with SkySafari and then to move the IBT using the Az scale and set the altitude with a Harbor Freight digital inclinometer.  Since there are no flat places perpendicular to the beam we did need to add 30 degrees to the inclinometers value.

I will admit that after a while the beep of the satellite finder got really old with over 300 people using the IBT during the course of the day.

FWIW weather wise it was typical St. Louis in the summer...highs in the 90s, humidity in the 90s, and heat index in the high 90s...standing out in the sun ...a true joy to be out there!  Making things worse, the next day with the same equipment  seven of us did a seven hour repeat performance celebrating International SUNDay at the Lewis & Clark Confluence Tower (http://www.confluencetower.com/).  I didn't add this day as it wasn't 24 hour removed from the Queeny Park event.