so ive been licensed about 6 years now and done plenty of HF DX, some 2m weak signal stuff, but EME has always seemed like this almost mythical thing that only guys with giant yagi arrays in their backyard could do. lately ive been reading more about it and apparently the situation has changed a lot with digital modes? like JT65 changed everything from what i understand.

anyway im on a suburban lot, no HOA thankfully, and i could probably put up a decent 2m yagi. my neighbor has a 4x4 yagi array for 2m EME and he makes it sound more accessible than i thought but he also has a pretty serious preamp setup and a really clean feedline run which im not sure i can replicate exactly. what are we actually talking about minimum equipment wise to make a legit EME contact? like realistically, not the "well technically you could do it with a 50w rig and a dipole" kind of answer.

i have an IC-9700 which i know is pretty capable on 2m and i could probably squeeze 100w out of it, maybe add a BEKO or similar amp later. is a single long boom yagi viable or am i kidding myself

honest answer - single yagi CAN work on JT65B or Q65 but you need it to be a long one, like 15+ elements minimum and ideally something in the 20+ range, a 2m5WL or similar. the IC-9700 is actually a solid starting point, decent noise figure on receive which matters a ton for EME. that said you really cant skip the preamp, a good low NF unit at the feedpoint makes a huge difference, were talking maybe 0.4-0.5dB NF which sounds small but on EME every tenth of a dB is real. your feedline run needs to be as short as possible to that preamp, coax loss before the LNA just murders your receive.

power wise 100w into a single long yagi gets you in the game on digital, ive seen guys work 30-40 DXCC entities on 2m EME with that kind of setup. it wont be fast and youll be chasing the big guns during good windows but its absolutely doable. the thing people underestimate is the software and timing side - you need a solid GPS disciplined clock or at least good NTP sync, the mode is unforgiving about timing. also get your az/el rotors sorted before anything else because chasing the moon manually is not a thing you want to experience

yeah what he said about the preamp is right, i made the mistake of running about 8 feet of LMR-400 between the antenna and the preamp on my first EME attempt and it was noticably worse than when i moved the preamp up to the mast. also the IC-9700 has a known issue with its internal preamp being a bit noisy so definitely go external mast mounted. i use a SSB Electronic unit and its been solid for a couple years now.

one thing nobody mentioned - moonbounce scheduling. check out the ON4KST chat, thats where basically everyone coordinates EME skeds, you kinda need to be in there if you want to actually make contacts especially as a smaller station. the random EME calling frequency thing does work but having a sked with someone who has a big array means they can dig you out even if your signal is marginal