Finally!!! Successfully completed our first 78GHz Rain Scatter QSO with Kevin VE3KH.

07/09/2024 @ 1513UTC

Not far, only 36km direct path, but now we know it works. It was pretty windy and it made it quite difficult to keep tracking of the rain as it moved across the path. It took quite a few tries to get a complete QSO because of the fast moving cells and we even had to take a good 30minute or more break as the cells kept disappearing on us. At the end, we got it and the proof is in the video.

Things to note, elevation is critical for peak signal. My dish was at 7.0degrees as the rain cell was quite close to me, but other cells we tried that moved too fast were as high as 9.7 and even 11.5degrees. The signals in those cells were strong as well, but too short lived. There is plenty of signal margin to greatly increase the distance.

Weather @ FN03FN
15°C with 25km/h winds gusting to 42km/h
Humidity according to the weather network was 82%
Barometric pressure was 101.2kPa

Thanks for hanging in there with me Kevin 🇨🇦