By far most long distance traffic is your/their callsign ("AB1CD"), your/their rough location ("location is Cape Canaveral, florida", or just "QTH is EL98"), and signal quality/strength ("five nine"). For contests a sequential number ("number 23"). Outside of contests, first names, power/transmitter/antenna used, and the weather.
Some people start longer discussions ("ragchews") from there. Though this is more common in regional communication. Topics can be all kinds of things, like exciting new ham radio topics ("there's a new ham radio satellite going up!"), where they've travelled (especially nice if you've been where the other person lives), their life history, health (not dead yet! me neither!) etc. Lots of random small talk. The main rule is to stay away from anything that could cause disagreement, like politics and religion.
This may not sound terribly interesting, but keep in mind that for many, this is really just the last step after a lot of time spent e.g. building and setting up new equipment or whatever. Also depending on propagation conditions (which vary wildly), just understanding the other person is a challenge in itself. The actual talking is often more of a side benefit.
Above is mostly assuming SSB (voice). Other modes are different. For example, with CW (morse) exchanges will generally be more concise. Then there's more "useful" modes, for example you could send/receive email over Winlink via a digital mode like VARA. This doesn't really benefit from extreme reach, but depending on which bands you have antennas for, the next station might be e.g. a thousand miles away, so this is more of a mid-range thing. In contrast, some digital modes like WSPR focus entirely on propagation research (/ antenna testing), and _automatically_ communicate the callsign, transmit power, location and _nothing else_, but getting (automated) reports from stations on the other side of the globe that have heard your very modestly powered transmissions feels pretty rewarding.
Also note that there are phenomena that give you long range, like grayline DX (good propagation along the day/night line), tropospheric ducting (bounces earth->sky->sky->sky->...->earth) and moonbounce/EME (earth->moon->earth). Trying these is fun in itself even without meaningful information exchanged. There's also ham radio satellites; including one in geostationary orbit (Es'hail 2). If you hit one, you can hit more or less your entire continent. There the fun is using the satellite; the reach is generally a welcome side effect.
Some people start longer discussions ("ragchews") from there. Though this is more common in regional communication. Topics can be all kinds of things, like exciting new ham radio topics ("there's a new ham radio satellite going up!"), where they've travelled (especially nice if you've been where the other person lives), their life history, health (not dead yet! me neither!) etc. Lots of random small talk. The main rule is to stay away from anything that could cause disagreement, like politics and religion.
This may not sound terribly interesting, but keep in mind that for many, this is really just the last step after a lot of time spent e.g. building and setting up new equipment or whatever. Also depending on propagation conditions (which vary wildly), just understanding the other person is a challenge in itself. The actual talking is often more of a side benefit.
Above is mostly assuming SSB (voice). Other modes are different. For example, with CW (morse) exchanges will generally be more concise. Then there's more "useful" modes, for example you could send/receive email over Winlink via a digital mode like VARA. This doesn't really benefit from extreme reach, but depending on which bands you have antennas for, the next station might be e.g. a thousand miles away, so this is more of a mid-range thing. In contrast, some digital modes like WSPR focus entirely on propagation research (/ antenna testing), and _automatically_ communicate the callsign, transmit power, location and _nothing else_, but getting (automated) reports from stations on the other side of the globe that have heard your very modestly powered transmissions feels pretty rewarding.
Also note that there are phenomena that give you long range, like grayline DX (good propagation along the day/night line), tropospheric ducting (bounces earth->sky->sky->sky->...->earth) and moonbounce/EME (earth->moon->earth). Trying these is fun in itself even without meaningful information exchanged. There's also ham radio satellites; including one in geostationary orbit (Es'hail 2). If you hit one, you can hit more or less your entire continent. There the fun is using the satellite; the reach is generally a welcome side effect.