Saturday night, set your APRS radio to 147.585 and check your log the next morning to see how many MS packets you got from other stations. You'll have an order of magnitude more success if you do it on 50.62 MHz though there will be fewer stations, and so the performance will likely be about the same.
beacon away at rates as high as one every 10 seconds
Make your packets as short as possible. The best format is simply to include a grid square using the format >AA##aa Name. The ">" at the beginning makes it so that APRS radios can receive and display them directly The name is optional...
For best results, use a beam and point it at a distant population center about 600 to 1200 miles away. That is your target area. Check your log the next morning and see what you got.
Please set your PATH to direct, with no digipeters...
Good luck! Bob, WB4APR