so ive been licensed for about 6 years now and i keep seeing EME contacts pop up on the DX clusters and i finally want to actually try this instead of just watching other people do it. i have a pretty decent HF setup but basically nothing useful for 2m EME which seems to be where most of the activity is.

from what ive read you basically need a big yagi array or a dish, a low noise preamp right at the feedpoint, and then run JT65 or Q65 through WSJT-X. is that the rough picture or am i missing something major. i looked at some of the stations on the EME2 loggers and some of these guys are running 4x9el or bigger arrays with like 1500 watts and it feels completely out of reach. but i also read that single yagi stations have made it work on JT65B so im not sure what the realistic minimums are.

current situation is i have an IC-9700 so at least the radio side is probably ok, and i could probably put up a single long yagi on my tower. preamp is the big question mark, ive seen people mention the SSB Electronics units and also some homebrewed stuff. noise figure seems like it matters a ton here. anyway just trying to get a realistic picture before i spend any money

yeah the 9700 is a solid starting point, that radio gets used for EME pretty regularly. the preamp really is the most critical piece honestly more than antenna gain in some ways - you want NF under 0.5dB ideally, closer to 0.3 is better. the SSB Electronics LNAs are fine but a lot of guys swear by the homebrew cavity ones or the Kuhne units if you can get them. whatever you use it has to be at the feedpoint, even a couple feet of coax before the preamp kills you.

single yagi EME is doable on Q65, thats the mode now, JT65B still works but Q65-60A is whats getting the marginal contacts done these days. you wont be working everyone but you can get on the board. 2x9el or 2x11el with a relay switched preamp at the mast and a decent power amp and you'll make contacts. expect to spend a lot of time on the EME chatrooms coordinating skeds especially early on, random contacts with a minimal station take patience.

i got into EME last year with basically a single 12el M2 yagi and the 9700, ran maybe 200w from a TE Systems amp. made my first contact after about 3 weeks of trying which felt like forever but once it clicked it was addictive. the coordination chat on PA2CHR's logger is where everything happens, people post when they're available for skeds and you can find stations willing to work smaller setups if you explain what you have.

the moon tracking software took me a while to get sorted, i use PstRotator for the azimuth and elevation and it talks to the radio and WSJT-X ok but the initial calibration of the elevation rotor was annoying. also dont underestimate how much the moon position window matters - you only get maybe 4-5 hours when the geometry is good and the moon is high enough for both stations, so planning matters a lot