It's amazing they pulled that off. Today it's a lot easier as some hams have figured out if you push enough ERP(watts) at the moon, someone on the other side of the earth can hear the bounce off the moon.
Instead of using the one para-refector that the guys in Louisville used, they are using large multiple
Yagi arrays. I've not had the guts to try it, or bouncing off satellites. Too rich for my blood. But I've seen them do it which is cool to hear your voice come back several seconds later.
BTW, because of the Louisville event, that's when NASA thought it might be in their best interest to encrypt communications. Now they use some strange spread spectrum stuff for comms. So you can hear a noise, (sort of like a modem noise), but you can't hear voices. Damn!
BTW, Fan, without googling, can you name a famous Hollywood actress responsible for the idea of spread spectrum communications? Hint: Samson and Delilah.