so ive been licensed for about 8 years now mostly doing HF stuff, some 2m weak signal when conditions are good, but ive always been kind of obsessed with the idea of bouncing signals off the moon. like the concept just blows my mind every time i think about it. anyway i finally have a yard situation where i could put up a decent array and im trying to figure out what the bare minimum realistic setup looks like for actually making contacts, not just hearing signals.

from what ive read it seems like 2m EME is the most common entry point, and a lot of people are doing JT65 now which supposedly makes it way more accessible than the old days. i have an IC-9700 already so the radio side might be okay? but the antenna situation is really where im lost. ive seen people running 4 yagis, 8 yagis, single big yagis, and i honestly cant tell what the minimum viable setup looks like. also no idea what power levels are realistic, i could maybe do a kilowatt amplifier if it actually matters.

anyone here actually doing EME regularly? would love to hear what your station looks like and what the first contact was like

congrats on wanting to try it, EME is probably the most satisfying thing ive done in 30 years of hamming. to actually answer your question though — the IC-9700 is fine for a starting point, the receiver is decent enough. the weak link is almost always going to be antenna gain and feedline loss, not the radio itself.

for a realistic entry level 2m EME setup most people run something like a single long yagi, we're talking 9 to 12 elements minimum, preferably more like a 15-17 element design with good f/b ratio. a single yagi you'll hear signals from the big guns pretty easily with JT65B but actually completing a two-way contact is going to be tough. two yagis stacked makes a real difference. four yagis is where you start feeling like you can work whoever you want on a decent pass.

power matters too. 100 watts into a single yagi into the moon is painful. if you can swing an SSPA or even an old tube amp to get to 500w-1kw at the feedpoint that changes things a lot. key thing is minimize feedline loss, like seriously use the best coax you can or go hardline, every tenth of a dB you lose before the antenna is basically throwing money into the ocean. preamp right at the feedpoint is also non negotiable, a good LNA with maybe 0.4-0.5dB noise figure will change your receive situation dramatically.

first contact is surreal. mine was with a station in japan and i sat there for like 10 minutes just kind of not believing it worked

yeah what he said about feedline loss is the thing people underestimate the most. i spent way too long wondering why my receive was mediocre and it turned out i had like 3dB of loss between the antenna and the preamp because i mounted the preamp at the shack end. moved it to the antenna and it was like someone turned up the volume knob on the moon.

also just want to mention — check out the EME2 logger and the online JT65 EME coordination stuff, there's basically a whole community that calls skeds and you dont have to just randomly call CQ into the void hoping someone hears you. makes the whole thing way less frustrating when you're starting out