About 16:10 MST, I was driving home from Show Low, AZ and talked to JA7WND, a station in Japan.
Earlier in the day, while driving to Show Low, I talked stations in Florida, Tennessee, Illinois and Minnesota.
All of this was on 29.6MHz FM, using a Yaesu FT-8900 in the car with a Diamond CR-8900A antenna.
It's not necessarily the mode, but more the propagation. SSB, CW, FT8 and so on, are better for ionospheric propagation than FM, but...yes....FM can make the distance.
Eric
WB6TIX