NW U.S.A. Garhard, VE6AQO and myself are also working together to put a 144 MHz beacon at the VE6EMU site. The most common VHF band of choice is 50 MHz. CW calling frequencies. The preferred mode when working VHF aurora is CW although SSB can be used at 50 MHz without too much difficulty. The received tone quality when using CW is very different than what you may be used to.
Tones are very raspy and garbled.
From the Edmonton area, we can commonly work the adjacent provinces and the northwestern states. Maximum distances over which two stations could make contact, regardless of frequency, is about 2,000 to 2,200 km. Radio Aurora is usually uncommon to the southern U.S.A. unless the K index was extremely high. Obviously, bigger is better. For example, if the targeted station is in southern Saskatchewan or Manitoba, I would point my antenna northeast.