so ive been on HF for about 8 years now and done a fair bit of VHF contesting, mostly 2m and 6m, and the EME thing has always been in the back of my mind as like the ultimate challenge. i finally started reading more seriously about it and honestly i feel like im looking at a completely different hobby at this point.

im on 2m, running a single 9 element yagi right now which i know is basically nothing for EME but i figured id ask what the realistic minimum looks like these days. i keep reading about people doing it with 4 yagis and a decent preamp but then other people say youre gonna sit there hearing nothing for hours. is JT65B still the go-to mode or has that shifted, i see some mention of Q65 now and im not totally sure what the difference means practically.

also the az/el rotator situation is kind of daunting. my current setup is az only and i know i need to add elevation but the mast situation at my house is gonna make that a real project. anyone done EME with like a marginal station and actually made contacts, or is it basically just the big gun guys working each other most of the time

yeah Q65 has pretty much taken over from JT65B for most EME work now, at least on 2m. the sensitivity is noticeably better and it handles doppler spread more gracefully which matters a lot when youre dealing with the path losses youre dealing with. if you havent already get WSJT-X updated and just spend some time decoding while the moon is up even before you transmit anything, youll start getting a feel for whats coming through.

single yagi EME is possible but youre really talking about working the big stations only, guys running 4x4 arrays or dishes. you wont be working other small stations. for 4 yagi minimum to start having more realistic QSO rates. the preamp placement is critical too, right at the feedpoint, not down at the rig, every tenth of a dB matters on this path. noise figure on the preamp needs to be under 0.5 dB ideally, MGF1302 or equivalent type stuff. elevation rotor is not optional unfortunately, the moon moves fast enough in elevation that you lose it quick without one. AR-303 or the green heron stuff works fine, doesnt have to be super fancy.

its a rabbit hole for sure but once you make that first contact its hard to go back

i did my first EME contact last fall with basically a shoestring setup, 4x DK7ZB yagis on a homemade el/az mount, about 500w at the antenna, and a 0.35dB NF preamp right at the mast. took a while to get everything dialed in mechanically and the coax losses were killing me until i switched to LMR-600 for the run down to the shack. made maybe a dozen contacts in the first two weekends which i thought was pretty decent for a small station.

the tracking software side of things tripped me up more than i expected honestly. getting the rotator interface talking to WSJT-X through the right virtual com port setup was an afternoon of frustration. but once its working its kinda magical watching the antenna follow the moon automatically. my neighbors definitely think im insane now with this thing pointing at the sky at 3am