Observation 14732518

KC1OCA UC-1464-531L (VHF)QB50P1NORAD 40025BPSKlabel: without-signalqueue rank 3

the fitted corridor, the path the matched filter scored, with its half width shaded. the same pass geometry at zero frequency offset. the commanded receive frequency, where a Doppler-corrected capture would sit. The gap between the first two is the measurement. Scale: 79.8 Hz per pixel across, 0.138 seconds per pixel down, drawn one screen pixel to one measured pixel.

The black and white points open at a fixed pair, not one fitted to this image. Across the 25 committed waterfalls the noise floor runs from 0.20 to 0.38, so on most observations the ramp starts well below the first real sample and a weak pass reads flat until the black point is raised toward the floor.

Reviewer note

generated, checked

The observation disagrees with the NORAD catalogue, suggesting a frequency of 145.815 MHz. In the waterfall image, look for a signal around the 20th degree elevation, near the center of the pass duration. A definitive observation would be the clear detection of a BPSK modulated signal at approximately 145.815 MHz, with a Doppler shift matching the provided fitted offset of 6146 Hz or 42.1 ppm.

Written by granite3.1-dense:8b (8.2B, Q4_K_M) from this observation's evidence packet, and accepted by the grounding checker: every number in it appears in that packet.

Check a claim about this observation

The grounding checker from the pipeline, ported to TypeScript and running here. Edit the sentence, or start from one of the drafts below, and the verdict changes as you type. Nothing is sent anywhere: the whole rule set is in the page.

396 of 700 characters

GROUNDED

Every number in this sentence is a token of the packet below, every code and label in it is this observation’s, and no permission rule fired. That is all the checker claims: the sentence is consistent with what was measured, not that the measurement is right.

The evidence packet this is checked against, exactly as the model was shown it
observation_id             : 14732518
ground_station_id          : 4806
ground_station_name        : KC1OCA UC-1464-531L (VHF)
norad_catalogue_id         : 40025
transmitter_mode           : BPSK
receiver_frequency_hz      : 145815000
network_label              : without-signal
pass_duration_s            : 214
max_elevation_deg          : 20.5
closest_approach_fraction  : 0.50
fitted_offset_hz           : 6146
fitted_offset_ppm          : 42.1
corridor_half_width_hz     : 2000
sigma_curved               : 3.1
sigma_vertical             : 0.8
hz_per_pixel               : 79.8
seconds_per_pixel          : 0.14
axis_derivation            : axis_ticks_ocr
axis_derivation_confidence : 0.94
model_probability          : 0.688
ensemble_uncertainty       : 0.0067
flat_row_fraction          : 0.00
queue_rank                 : 3
queue_score                : 0.600
queue_reason_codes         : STALE_CATALOGUE_FREQ
offset_at_bound            : false

The closed world. A number that is not a token of this text is not grounded, which is why 6490 is refused although those digits appear inside 436490000: containment is not membership, and a transposed offset passed the old check for exactly that reason.

The pass

The same propagation that produced the corridor above, drawn from the station's point of view and from orbit. Elevation is measured from the WGS-84 geodetic normal, which is the reference the corridor was scored against.

Sky track

Azimuth clockwise from true north, elevation from the horizon at the rim to the zenith at the centre. The open circle is the rise, the square is the set, and the filled mark is closest approach at 20.5°.

NESW3060

Ground track

The subsatellite point, the station as a cross, and the satellite’s horizon circle at closest approach from 508 km. There is no basemap: this console ships no coastline data and will not draw one it cannot cite.

2030405060-110-100-90-80-70-60

Elevation and Doppler against time

The same pass on a time axis. Two stacked panels rather than one panel with two vertical scales, because a twin-axis chart lets the author choose where two curves appear to cross. This window spans closest approach, and the Doppler zero crossing lands on the sample where elevation peaks, because both happen at the same instant.

0306090ELEVATION, DEG+2k0−2kDOPPLER, HZ054107161214SECONDS FROM THE START OF THE RECORDING
Every row is a field of the exported geometry, not a figure read off the plots.
QuantityValueWhere it comes from
Maximum elevation20.478°Highest sample of the propagated pass, from the geodetic normal
Azimuth at closest approach264.82°Clockwise from true north
Slant range at closest approach1191.5 kmStation to satellite, the minimum over the pass
Closest approach, as a fraction of the pass0.50290 is the start of the recording window, 1 the end
Samples propagated512An error count above zero means the orbit model refused part of the window, and the track is drawn only where it did not

The fit

Frequency offset
6146 Hz
42.1 ppm of the catalogue downlink
Corridor half width
2000 Hz
25.1 pixels at this image scale
Max elevation
20.5°
pass geometry from the TLE that was current at capture
Closest approach
50%
through the observation window, where the Doppler curve is steepest
Detection strength against corridor offset0.01.53.1-7.3-3.603.67.3corridor offset, kHzsigma3.07σ at 6,146 Hz
Matched-filter sigma at every whole-pixel offset the fit was allowed, subsampled for transport with the peak and both endpoints always kept. The peak is the fitted offset: the same function produces both, so they cannot disagree. The curve is what makes the fit a measurement rather than a choice, because a corridor that were merely near the trace would give a flat sweep with no peak to find. Scored at 183 offsets, 183 plotted.

The fitted curve is the predicted Doppler curve shifted by the fitted frequency offset, which is the path the matched filter scored.

The predicted curve is the same shape at zero offset, so the gap between them is the measurement.

Time runs bottom to top: the first row is the end of the pass.

The frequency axis runs against the Doppler sign.

Why it is in the queue

The composite score and the criteria it met, from the queue receipt.

FieldValueWhat it is
Rank3inside the review budget of 50
Composite score0.599878rank-normalised blend of model disagreement, uncertainty and physics
Model p(signal)0.687500calibrated probability from the shipped image and corridor arm
Ensemble spread0.006671disagreement between seeds; a proxy for how sure the arm is
Flat rows0.0000fraction of the waterfall with no luminance variation
Episode4806:40025:7station, satellite and orbital revolution: the unit the interval is grouped on
ConflicttrueStale catalogue frequency

Precedent

The five nearest passes in the snapshot under the Granite embedding of a text card built from this pass's numbers.

Two conditions: any station, and then a condition that excludes this station and this satellite so a neighbour cannot be a near-duplicate of the query.

The measured agreement is on the precedent page, and under the second condition it does not beat chance.

ConditionNeighbourStationSatellite (NORAD)StartNetwork label
Any station147325134806394442026-08-09T19:28:55Zwith-signal
147325314806255442026-08-09T19:35:12Zwithout-signal
14732508480675302026-08-09T20:15:51Zwithout-signal
147325294806255442026-08-09T14:43:55Zwithout-signal
147325304806255442026-08-09T17:58:23Zwith-signal
Other station, other satellite147307162148982722026-08-09T18:30:07Zwithout-signal
147293832148676832026-08-09T15:19:30Zwith-signal
147362902148676832026-08-09T21:46:14Zwithout-signal
14736765642690152026-08-09T15:27:43Zwith-signal
147435391461438812026-08-09T18:10:43Zwithout-signal
This pass carries the network label without-signal, station 4806, satellite QB50P1 (NORAD 40025). Counting how many neighbours match that label is one draw and settles nothing on its own. The neighbours link to the network rather than to this console, because most of them are outside the shipped set and the console carries no imagery for them.

Provenance

Enough to fetch the original and check it.

FieldValue
Sourcenetwork.satnogs.org/observations/14732518
Original waterfall SHA-256e8309d7a2e68bdcab552faabfa4fdf8aafdd1072c38011bc769820d2c3823655
Window2026-08-09T23:42:31Z to 2026-08-09T23:46:05Z
Receive frequency145,815,000 Hz
Axis derivationread off the spectrogram's own tick labels (confidence 0.94)
Displayed imageunweighted mean of the R, G and B channels, 8-bit