Radio amateurs in the USA have access to an unusual band at 902 to 928 MHz which is known as the 33 cm band. Due to its unusual nature, much of the equipment for the band has to be home made or modified with transverters being a popular choice.
In November of 2023, Al W5LUA was awarded the very first Worked All States award from the ARRL. He started collecting the states shortly after the band opened in 1985 and his quest has taken 18-years.
As a band in the UHF region, most of the 'local' states would have been possible via tropospheric propagation but to work all 50 US states, signals had to be bounced off the moon. i.e. EME or moonbounce.
W5LUA's station consists of a 5-meter dish with 400 W of power obtained from two 300 W Motorola amplifiers in parallel. His feed is a dual polarity patch feed.
As recently as September of 2023, W5LUA was stuck on 32 states and still 18 short. Thanks to Peter, KA6U who went on a roving 25-state expedition, the last 18 states were worked.
W5LUA writes... "I am extremely grateful to Peter Van Horne, KA6U, for his EME [Earth-moon-Earth] efforts. I was able to work Wisconsin for my last state on the 33-centimeter band on October 21. At the end of September, I was sitting at 32 states confirmed with cards and/or the Logbook of The World (LoTW), when Van Horne went on a 25-state expedition providing my last 18 states."
W5LUA also notes that prior to that, recent expeditions by Brian, NX9O, and Jason, N1AV, also provided several states that were needed.
Background to the 33 cms band... In 1985, the FCC allocated the frequency band between 902 and 928 MHz to Part 18 industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) equipment. In that proceeding, the band was also allocated to the Amateur Radio Service on a secondary basis, meaning amateurs could use the band if they accepted interference from and did not cause interference to primary users.
The list above from the North Texas Microwave Society gives an idea of what equipment is used on the band.
1) ARRL... The First Worked All States Certificate Awarded for the 33-Centimeter Band.
2) North Texas Microwave Society... 902 MHz Presentations (PDF)
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