I found out earlier in the week that there is FT8 activity in the PNW area on the 2m band (144.174 MHz). I made an entry in my calendar to make sure I would at least listen to see if I could hear anyone. It should be noted that I live in a forest with ~100 ft tall trees all around and a hill blocking most traffic to the east. My antenna setup is also far from optimal for 2m SSB as I only have a dual-band vertical placed on a 4 foot pole on the top of my garage.

I tuned in about 30 min before the scheduled time and to my surprise the first station was already calling CQ. After just 3 attempts I was able to make contact and complete the QSO. Another one came in about 30 min later and then traffic increased fast. I was able to make 8 contacts from CN87 and CN88, including one in Canada and I heard a station in CN85 (Oregon) but was not able to make that contact. After an hour or so of good fun I'll return to the HF bands until the next event.