so ive been licensed for about 6 years now, mostly do HF and some 2m meteor scatter, but EME has always been kind of this mythical thing to me. like i know it works, ive seen the spots on pskreporter and stuff, but i honestly dont know what kind of station you realistically need to make it happen on a budget that isnt insane.

from what ive read you basically need a big dish or a yagi array, a low noise preamp right at the feedpoint, and a lot of power. but i dont know what low noise actually means in practice, like is 0.5dB NF actually necessary or is that overkill for someone just trying to work a few stations. im running a 2m transverter off my IC-7300 and i can get maybe 150w out which i know is not a lot for EME. i have room for maybe a 4x9el yagi array in the backyard, would that even be workable with JT65 or is it just a pipe dream at that power level.

also curious what the actual experience is like, like how long does a contact typically take and is there a specific window when the moon is in a good position for north america. any info appreciated, ive been reading ON4KST logs for a while now and the activity seems real but im not sure if im just watching the big guns have all the fun.

4x9el and 150w is actually workable for random EME on JT65, i wont lie to you it wont be easy but its been done with less. the big thing people underestimate is the preamp, you really do want something in the 0.3-0.5dB NF range mounted right at the antenna, not down in the shack. every tenth of a dB matters a lot more on EME than it does on any other mode because youre dealing with path losses around 250dB total, the signal is genuinely right at the noise floor most of the time. MGF1302 or ATF-54143 based preamps are popular and you can build one for not a lot if youre handy with a soldering iron, or just buy a DB6NT or SSB electronics unit if you want plug and play.

the timing stuff is simple, there are windows when the moon is above the horizon for both you and the DX station at the same time, you can figure that out in any EME propagation software like WSJT-X has it built in honestly. ON4KST chat is where everyone coordinates, you definitely want to be watching that when you get on. patience is the main thing, some contacts take 20-30 minutes of sequencing back and forth.

yeah what he said about the preamp placement is huge. i made the mistake of having mine about 6 feet of coax from the feed before i moved it and the difference was noticeable even on terrestrial weak signal stuff. on EME it would have been even worse. also if you havent already, spending time on the WSJT-X user group reflector or the moon-net mailing list is worth it, theres a ton of archived info and people there are generally pretty helpful to newcomers as long as you do some reading first before asking stuff thats already been covered a hundred times.

my first EME QSO was with a big gun in europe and honestly i was shocked it worked at all with my setup at the time, 4x17el and maybe 400w. so dont get discouraged before you even try.