so ive been licensed for about 6 years now and been doing HF mostly, some VHF contest stuff, but EME has always been in the back of my head as this crazy goal. talked to a guy at the club last year who works 2m EME with a single yagi and JT65 and honestly that blew my mind because i always assumed you needed like a massive dish and a kilowatt just to even attempt it.

so i started reading around and now im more confused than before. some guys say you need at least a 2x8 yagi array, others say a single long yagi with 500 watts is doable on 2m if you pick the right window. i have an IC-9700 which i think handles the IF shift and doppler stuff okay but i genuinely dont know if thats true or if i need some external SDR setup. also the preamp situation — i keep reading about low noise preamps but nobody really explains where you mount them, like at the antenna feedpoint or in the shack.

not really asking for a shopping list just trying to get a sense of what a realistic first EME setup looks like for someone who isnt going to build a 10 meter dish in their backyard

the 9700 will work fine for EME honestly, the doppler correction is built in or you can let WSJT-X handle it, doesnt matter much on 2m since the shift isnt that dramatic compared to higher bands. your real bottleneck is going to be the antenna and the preamp, in that order.

single yagi is definitely doable now with JT65B and Q65, guys are making contacts with a 9 element and 500w, it just means you're limited to working the big stations — the ones with arrays or dishes. which is still real EME, just not the same as being able to work other single yagi stations. preamp goes at the feedpoint, full stop. every foot of coax between the antenna and the LNA is killing you. i use a down east microwave unit, its been solid for years. NF around 0.3 dB which is about as good as it gets without going crazy.

start with the WSJT-X group on groups.io and look for the EME logs, you can see what stations are working what and get a feel for whats realistic for your setup before you spend anything.

yeah what he said about the preamp placement is huge, i made the mistake of putting mine at the shack end first because i didnt want to deal with weatherproofing and my noise figure was embarrassing. moved it to the mast and it was like a completely different antenna. also if you're in the northern hemisphere check when the moon is at high declination, your windows where the moon is actually at a usable elevation for both you and the other station matter a lot more than i thought when i was getting started