so ive been a licensed ham for about 8 years now and mostly done HF stuff, some 2m weak signal when the band opens up, but ive had this idea in the back of my head about doing EME for probably the last 3 years. finally pulled the trigger on reading more about it seriously and now im kind of overwhelmed.

the path loss numbers are insane. like we're talking 250+ dB on 2m which just... yeah. i get that JT65 and now Q65 changed everything but even still the equipment requirements seem like a pretty serious jump from what i have. right now i've got a modest station, FT-991A, a 9 element yagi for 2m that i mostly use for meteor scatter, and an SDRplay for monitoring.

what does a minimum viable EME setup actually look like these days? i keep seeing references to single yagi EME being doable with the digital modes but then other posts say you really need at least 4 yagis or a big dish to work anyone other than the big guns. is a single long yagi like a 17+ element even worth trying or am i going to just decode signals and never complete a QSO? also what preamp situation do i actually need, ive heard the masthead preamp is basically non negotiable but what kind of noise figure are we really talking about needing

okay so this is actually a topic i have strong opinions on because i went through exactly this about 4 years ago and made some mistakes i could have avoided.

short answer: single yagi EME on 2m is real but you need to set expectations correctly. a long yagi, something like a 7 wavelength or longer, plus a really solid low noise preamp at the mast, you can absolutely decode stations and complete QSOs with the big gun stations who have dishes or yagi arrays. the bigger guys are actively looking to work small stations, especially if you're a new grid or new entity for them, so dont count yourself out just because your antenna isn't huge.

the preamp situation is genuinely non-negotiable like you said. you want sub 0.5 dB noise figure ideally, and it has to be at the mast not in the shack. every tenth of a dB matters on this path. the SSB Electronic stuff is popular, down east microwave makes good preamps too. also make sure your feed line is decent coax because that all adds up before the signal even hits your radio.

the other thing nobody tells you upfront is the pointing accuracy matters more than you think. you need to track the moon precisely and have a sense of your antenna's actual beamwidth because if your az/el is off even a few degrees on a narrow beam antenna you're losing signal you can't afford to lose. get good rotators and good control software, the cheap stuff will frustrate you. other than that honestly just get on the WSJT-X reflector and the moonbounce mailing list and start lurking, those communities are super helpful for new folks getting into this.

the 9 element you have now is probably not gonna cut it honestly, even for decoding. worked EME for the first time last year with a pair of long boom M2 yagis stacked and it was rough some nights even with that. Q65 helps a lot over JT65 for smaller stations but you're still fighting a brutal path.

one thing worth looking into is whether anyone near you does sked-based EME because your first QSO is way easier if you're pointed at someone who knows you're coming and has a big signal. random EME is harder when youre small. check the ON4KST EME chat, thats basically where everyone hangs out to arrange skeds these days.