I just happened to be monitoring the 2 meter FM simplex calling frequency a couple weeks ago on my cheap Chinese HT during the VHF contest and low and behold I just happened to hear a contesting station calling in. So I gave him a call with my 4 - 5 watts into a rubber ducky and we established contact , exchanged information and wished each other good luck in the contest. Now it probably helped that the station was a repeater club across the Hudson river and probably had the luxury of a good antenna mounted a few hundred feet high up on the ol' Armstrong tower over on the Palisades overlooking my area. But then a contact is a contact is a contact...