so ive been licensed for about 12 years now, mostly HF stuff, some 2m weak signal when conditions are good, but ive always wanted to try moonbounce and keep putting it off. recently retired so i finally have the time and the backyard space to do something real about it. problem is every time i start reading about it i go down a rabbit hole and come out more confused than before.

from what i understand the basic minimum on 2m EME is something like a pair of long yagis, decent power, and a low noise preamp right at the feedpoint. ive seen people say you can do it with a single yagi and JT65 but also seen people say thats barely workable and youll spend months getting your first contact. i have room for a 4-yagi array but not sure if thats overkill or honestly where i should start. noise floor around here is reasonably low, not super rural but not in a city either.

also the moon tracking software and rotator situation is kind of intimidating. do people actually use separate az/el rotators or is there some integrated setup that works better. my current rotator is just an old Yaesu G-800 which obviously wont do elevation. just looking for some reality check from anyone whos actually done this, not just the wiki writeups which tend to assume you already know everything.

been on 2m EME for about 6 years so maybe i can help a little. the single yagi JT65 thing is technically possible but honestly its kind of miserable, youre talking marginal decodes and a lot of frustration. a 2x9el or 2x11el setup is probably the sweet spot for getting started without going full four-square array. you get real contacts, people hear you without too much trouble, and you dont have to mortgage the house on hardware.

for rotators most people doing it seriously run seperate az and el units. the G-800 wont cut it for az either if you want to track the moon continuously, you really want something with computer control. a lot of guys use the Yaesu G-5500 combo which is purpose built for this kind of thing and the software support is everywhere. pairs up with HamLib and PstRotator without much drama. the preamp situation is critical, a good MGF1302 or similar GaAs FET right at the feedpoint makes a real difference, dont skimp there or run long coax before the LNA or youve already lost.

power wise if youre running a kilowatt youre in decent shape. some guys do it with 500w and a good array but more is obviously better on a path with that much loss. the EME path loss on 2m is something like 252 dB which sounds terrifying but JT65 handles it if your station is reasonably put together.

yeah what he said about the preamp. i made the mistake on my first EME attempt of running like 10 feet of LMR400 from the feedpoint to the preamp because i thought it would be fine and my noise figure went to garbage. moved the preamp to the boom and suddenly the difference was obvious on the waterfall. seems obvious in hindsight but nobody really emphasizes how critical that is when youre first reading about it.

also just want to throw out that the EME2 reflector and the online logging at PE1ITR's site are worth bookmarking. you can see whos active, when moon windows line up, and theres usually someone willing to do a sked if you post that youre trying to get your first contact. dont be shy about asking, the EME community is pretty welcoming to new stations especially if you put in the effort on your antenna setup.