so ive been licensed for about 6 years now and done a fair bit of HF stuff, some VHF contesting here and there, but EME has always been this thing in the back of my mind that seemed way out of reach. lately ive been going down the rabbit hole of reading about it and watching some videos and i think i actually want to give it a serious shot on 2m.

my main confusion right now is the antenna requirements. i keep seeing people say you can do it with a single yagi and JT65 these days which sounds almost too good to be true, but then other posts im reading from like 2010 say you need a big array. is the single yagi thing actually viable or are you just going to hear nothing and work nothing. i have room for maybe a 10-12 element yagi on an az-el mount which i could probably build or source, and my current radio is an IC-9700 which ive seen mentioned a lot for this.

also the low noise preamp situation confuses me a bit, i understand the concept but im not sure where to put it exactly, like is it at the feedpoint or in the shack, and does it need to be relay switched for transmit or what. sorry if this is a basic question im just trying to figure out if this is realistic before i sink a lot of time into it.

the single yagi thing is real, not a myth. people were skeptical when JT65 came along and sort of changed everything for weak signal work and EME specifically. with a decent 2m yagi, maybe a 17-19 element long boom design, and a good preamp you can absolutely make contacts. not thousands of them, but enough to know you're doing it.

the 9700 is a solid choice for this, it has a decent noise figure on 2m but youll still want an external LNA at the feedpoint, not in the shack. that distinction matters a lot because every bit of coax between the antenna and the first amplification stage adds noise. something like an SSB Electronics or a Kuhne unit is what most people run, and yes it needs to be relay switched because you do not want to TX through an LNA, you'll destroy it pretty fast. a lot of guys use a separate relay or a sequencer to make sure the preamp is bypassed before the PA keys up. get the sequencing right before anything else, its the thing that bites people.

realistic expectations: you probably wont work anyone on CW EME with that setup but JT65B is a different story. check the moon schedule, get on during a busy period when the moon is at a good elevation for both stations, and you will be surprised. i worked my first EME contact with a single 15el M2 and a 100w brick before i even had the station properly optimized.

yeah what he said about the sequencer is no joke, i fried a preamp once because i was too casual about the TX/RX switching. cost me like $180 and a lot of embarrassment. now i use a proper sequencer and everything keys in the right order, preamp bypass first then PTT then PA, and reverse on the way out.

one thing i'd add is dont overlook the coax. if you run 50 feet of mediocre coax from the feedpoint to the shack youre basically throwing away half the reason you bought a good LNA. LMR-400 minimum, a lot of EME guys go straight to hardline or use a short jumper of LMR-600 at least. its not cheap but neither is spending a weekend chasing the moon and hearing nothing because your feed line is lossy.