Observation 14745990

Sofia SAT Club - Hadji Boby VHFUND ROADS 1NORAD 64535FSK AX.100 Mode 5label: without-signalqueue rank 5

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: 1157.0 Hz per pixel across, 0.285 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 145.9 MHz instead of the reported 145.900 MHz. Focus on the center of the waterfall image around 145.9 MHz. A definitive observation would be the clear detection of a signal at the exact frequency of 145.900 MHz, which would resolve this discrepancy.

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.

328 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             : 14745990
ground_station_id          : 4272
ground_station_name        : Sofia SAT Club - Hadji Boby VHF
norad_catalogue_id         : 64535
transmitter_mode           : FSK AX.100 Mode 5
receiver_frequency_hz      : 145900000
network_label              : without-signal
pass_duration_s            : 439
max_elevation_deg          : 88.0
closest_approach_fraction  : 0.50
fitted_offset_hz           : 4628
fitted_offset_ppm          : 31.7
corridor_half_width_hz     : 2000
sigma_curved               : 0.3
sigma_vertical             : 0.3
hz_per_pixel               : 1157.0
seconds_per_pixel          : 0.29
axis_derivation            : axis_ticks_ocr
axis_derivation_confidence : 0.70
model_probability          : 0.650
ensemble_uncertainty       : 0.0271
flat_row_fraction          : 0.00
queue_rank                 : 5
queue_score                : 0.596
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 88.0°.

NESW3060

Ground track

The subsatellite point, the station as a cross, and the satellite’s horizon circle at closest approach from 500 km. There is no basemap: this console ships no coastline data and will not draw one it cannot cite.

203040506001020304050

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+5k0−5kDOPPLER, HZ0110220329439SECONDS 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 elevation87.957°Highest sample of the propagated pass, from the geodetic normal
Azimuth at closest approach262.59°Clockwise from true north
Slant range at closest approach499.5 kmStation to satellite, the minimum over the pass
Closest approach, as a fraction of the pass0.49900 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
4628 Hz
31.7 ppm of the catalogue downlink
Corridor half width
2000 Hz
1.7 pixels at this image scale
Max elevation
88.0°
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 offset0.00.20.3-6.9-3.503.56.9corridor offset, kHzsigma0.32σ at 4,628 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 13 offsets, 13 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
Rank5inside the review budget of 50
Composite score0.596098rank-normalised blend of model disagreement, uncertainty and physics
Model p(signal)0.650000calibrated probability from the shipped image and corridor arm
Ensemble spread0.027128disagreement between seeds; a proxy for how sure the arm is
Flat rows0.0000fraction of the waterfall with no luminance variation
Episode4272:64535:6station, 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 station147460554272411872026-08-09T23:42:07Zwith-signal
147456534272982722026-08-09T22:10:09Zwithout-signal
147439864272411832026-08-09T15:22:36Zwith-signal
147454554272400862026-08-09T21:00:50Zwithout-signal
147459894272411882026-08-09T22:51:21Zwith-signal
Other station, other satellite147374614460690152026-08-09T20:37:32Zwith-signal
147422253677627132026-08-09T20:24:17Zwithout-signal
147422283677627132026-08-09T21:59:13Zwithout-signal
147422263677986712026-08-09T20:31:29Zwith-signal
147422243677985262026-08-09T18:49:25Zwithout-signal
This pass carries the network label without-signal, station 4272, satellite UND ROADS 1 (NORAD 64535). 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/14745990
Original waterfall SHA-256af3db9b4c972f688911af1dd7731c2e44c70a37299f8dd461851f5bc24f90e18
Window2026-08-09T23:03:36Z to 2026-08-09T23:10:55Z
Receive frequency145,900,000 Hz
Axis derivationread off the spectrogram's own tick labels (confidence 0.70)
Displayed imageunweighted mean of the R, G and B channels, 8-bit