so ive been licensed for about 6 years now and mostly do HF stuff, some 2m SSB when the band opens up, but ive always been kind of obsessed with the idea of moonbounce. like bouncing a signal off the actual moon is just insane to me and i want to try it before i get too old to build all the hardware lol

the problem is every time i start reading about it i get completely overwhelmed. some guys say you need a massive array and a kilowatt minimum, other guys are talking about doing JT65 contacts with a single yagi and like 100 watts. i dont know who to believe. i have a decent 2m setup already — ic-9700, a pair of M2 2M5WL yagis stacked, and a good preamp at the feedline. az/el rotor is already on the list because i know i need that

mainly wondering if anyone here has actually done EME with modest gear and what kind of results you got. is it worth building toward or is it one of those things where you really do need the big guns to work anyone meaningful

your stacked M2s plus the 9700 is actually a pretty solid starting point, more than you might think. the 9700 does JT65 natively which is huge. with that antenna setup you're probably looking at around 14-15 dBd of gain which puts you in range for working other moderate stations, maybe not the big guns on first try but there's a surprising number of guys running similar setups these days specifically because JT65B made EME accessible.

the az/el rotor is non-negotiable, get that sorted first. sequencer too — dont skip the sequencer, i fried a preamp once being sloppy with transmit/receive switching and it was an expensive lesson. low noise preamp right at the feedline matters a lot, you want the noise figure as low as possible before any coax loss eats into it. what preamp are you running currently? if it's a KD0S or SSB Electronics that's fine but placement really matters.

honestly just get on the EME2 reflector and watch the sked postings for a few weeks before you try anything. the community is genuinely helpful and once you understand the rhythm of how skeds work it gets way less intimidating. first contact is the hardest one.

yeah i did my first EME contact about two years ago with a single 9el yagi on 2m and an old FT-847, maybe 80 watts out. worked one station in Japan running a big array. took like 45 minutes and a bunch of retries but it happened. honestly one of the best moments ive had in this hobby and the setup was pretty modest by EME standards

the JT65 thing really did change everything from what the old timers tell me, back in CW-only days you needed a lot more antenna to hear yourself in the noise. now even marginal setups can squeak through. that said if you already have two yagis stacked you're ahead of where i was so i'd say just go for it, worst case you hear the big stations and nobody hears you back at first