so ive been licensed for about 6 years now mostly doing HF with some 2m weak signal stuff on the side and EME has always seemed like this insane black magic thing that only guys with massive yagi arrays in their backyard could do. but ive been reading more about it lately especially with WSJT-X and the JT65 stuff and it seems like maybe the bar isnt quite as high as i thought?

anyway my current 2m setup is a single 9 element yagi at about 30 feet, a sequencer, and a decent preamp — i think its a SSB Electronics unit, cant remember the model offhand. running about 100w from an IC-9700. i know thats pretty modest but i see people online claiming they've worked EME with similar setups using digital modes so im wondering if thats actually realistic or if theyre exaggerating.

the bigger question for me is elevation — my yagi is on a fixed mount and i dont have a way to tilt it up. i know the moon isnt always near the horizon so im guessing i need an az/el setup to really do this properly? or is there a window where the moon is low enough that i could at least attempt a few contacts with what i have? just trying to figure out if i need to dump a bunch of money into this before i even try or if i can dip my toe in first.

your setup is honestly not that far off for a first attempt, especially on digital. the 9 element is going to hurt you a bit but guys have made EME contacts on 2m with as little as a single yagi and 100w using JT65B — its tight but it happens. the bigger issue is the az/el thing you mentioned. fixed elevation really does limit your moon windows, depending on your latitude you might only get the moon within like 5-10 degrees of the horizon a few times a month and you'd need to be watching and ready to jump on it fast.

realistically if you want to do this with any regularity you need the az/el rotor situation sorted. a lot of guys use the Yaesu G-5500 combo for this, its not perfect but it works and the software support is solid with stuff like PstRotator or even just the built in tracking in WSJT. some people also just run two yagis stacked to get a bit more gain and that makes a real difference — going from one 9el to two stacked 9el or even 11el is probably the most bang for your buck upgrade before worrying about power.

also make sure your preamp is right at the feedpoint, not in the shack. on EME the noise figure of your receive chain is everything, even a couple extra feet of coax between the antenna and preamp will cost you.

yeah the moon window thing is real, i spent like two months trying to catch the moon below 10 degrees on my fixed mount before i just gave up and bought a used Az/El setup off a guy in the club. totally worth it. also the EME2 reflector and the ON4KST chat are where the skeds happen, dont sleep on those if you actually want to make contacts — random calling on 144.120 does work but having a sked lined up with someone who knows youre a small station makes the first contact way less frustrating