Reports are a little unclear, but it appears that the lunar lander has an EIRP of 1W at 437.41MHz.
The following is path budget calculation using:
- current moon distance 380000km;
- EIRP 1W;
- ambient noise 100K;
- 22dB gain antenna;
- 1dB NF receiver; and
- 200Hz ENB.
| Frequency | 437.41 MHz |
| Field Strength Bandwidth | 200.00 Hz |
| Field Strength distance to source | 3.800e+8 m |
| Field Strength Noise Figure | -15.896 dB |
| Field Strength Noise Temperature | 7.460 K |
| Field Strength Excess Noise Ratio | NA |
| Field Strength Excess Noise Temperature | NA |
| Field Strength (200.00 Hz) | 0.01441 μV/m -36.83 dBμV/m 0.00003825 μA/m -88.35 dBμA/m 5.51e-19 W/m^2 -182.59 dBW/m^2 |
| Normalised Field Strength (1 Hz) | -59.84 dBμV/m -111.36 dBμA/m 2.76e-21 W/m^2 27.6 SFU 2.76e+5 Jy |
| Antenna system factor | 1.04 dB/m |
| Antenna system gain | 22.00 dBi |
| Receiver input resistance | 50.0 Ω |
| Receiver Noise Figure | 1.00 dB |
| Receiver Noise Temperature | 75.088 K |
| Receiver Bandwidth | 200.00 Hz |
| Receiver distance to source | 3.800e+8 m |
| Receiver Voltage (external) | 0.01278 μV -37.87 dBμV |
| Receiver Power (external) | 3.265e-18 W -144.86 dBm 1182 K |
| Receiver S/N | 8.30 dB |
| Receiver (S+N)/N | 8.89 dB |
| S/N degradation | 0.600 dB |
So, it seems feasible to decode the data transmission with a good EME standard ground station.
It may be possible to decode the Morse transmission with a lower standard station.