so ive been licensed about 6 years now and done a fair bit of HF DX but for some reason EME has always been in the back of my mind as like the ultimate challenge. started reading up on it more seriously the last few months and honestly the more I read the more confused I get about what the minimum viable setup actually looks like.

I know the old school guys were running massive antenna arrays and kilowatt amps but ive been seeing stuff about JT65 and Q65 making it more accessible now? like is a single yagi on 2m actually realistic or am I setting myself up to be disappointed. my lot isnt huge, probably could swing a 9 or 11 element yagi on an az-el mount without too much drama with the neighbors.

also the moon tracking software side of it, is there one program people actually use or is it a whole rabbit hole of different tools chained together. dont want to spend a year building something and then find out Im pointed at the wrong part of sky half the time lol

Q65 changed things pretty significantly yeah. I worked my first EME contact about 3 years ago with a single 14 element yagi and a 500w amp, so it's definitely doable on a modest setup. you're not gonna be running up a huge initial contact list fast but it works. the antenna gain is obviously the biggest limiting factor and every dB you can squeeze out matters a lot more on EME than just about anything else in radio.

for tracking software most people I know use either WXtrack or MacDoppler depending on platform, but the actual logging and digital mode stuff is WSJT-X which you probably already know from FT8. the JT65 and Q65 modes in there handle the timing and the moonbounce specific stuff is more about getting your az-el mount calibrated properly and feeding it the tracking data. there are interfaces that pipe the tracking output directly to rotator controllers which makes life easier.

one thing nobody really tells you upfront is that the moon isnt always at a useful elevation, so your actual operating windows can be pretty short depending on your location and time of year. worth running some simulations before you commit to where you're mounting the antenna because you want as much sky coverage as possible especially to the horizon on the azimuths where the moon tends to sit for your latitude.

im in a similar boat actually, been lurking on the 2m EME reflector for like a year trying to figure out if my setup would even be worth it. one thing i keep seeing mentioned is system noise temperature being almost as important as antenna gain, like a mediocre preamp can kill you even if the antenna is decent. the low noise preamp right at the feedpoint seems to be where people say dont cheap out. there was a good thread on the moonbouncers groups.io about this a while back if you havent found that community yet, pretty active and people are pretty helpful to newcomers