SatNOGS Ground Stations Screensaver
The SatNOGS Ground Stations screensaver shows satellite passes that volunteer radio stations around the world have just successfully received, gathered key-less by the pipeline. It's free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
Live preview
Press ESC to leave fullscreen. Settings are saved in your browser only.
How the SatNOGS Ground Stations screensaver works
The saver reads the source described above and draws it on a canvas — no account, no tracking.
Satellite passes that volunteer radio stations around the world have just successfully received, gathered key-less by the pipeline. SatNOGS is an open network of home-built tracking antennas, and the frame count is how much data actually came down.
It refreshes on a schedule, so what you see stays current.
Colours and any options can be changed in settings; nothing is stored beyond your own browser.
How SatNOGS observations work
SatNOGS stands for Satellite Networked Open Ground Station. It is a free software and open source hardware project, run by the Libre Space Foundation, that won first place in the Hackaday Prize in 2014. Its ground station is built largely from 3D-printed parts and readily available materials: a rotator, antennas and electronics connected to client software, often running on an embedded computer.
The SatNOGS Network web app schedules observations across the stations. Each station’s client receives the schedule, captures the satellite’s transmission when it passes overhead, and sends the data back to the Network. Each row in this saver is one such observation that returned data. Frequencies are recorded in hertz, so a value such as 401140000 is 401.14 MHz.
Only passes that returned data are included, so the list shows what the network heard. That makes it a view of volunteer coverage, not of satellite health or of everything in orbit.
A worked example
Satellite passes that volunteer radio stations around the world have just successfully received, gathered key-less by the pipeline. SatNOGS is an open network of home-built tracking antennas, and the frame count is how much data actually came down.
Settings & tips
- Accent and Background recolour the display.
- Every number on screen comes from the live source — nothing is simulated.
- Press ESC to leave fullscreen.
Frequently asked questions
- Is this real data?
- Yes — it comes from the source named on this page and is refreshed on a schedule.
- Is a key needed?
- No. This source is fully key-less.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
- Who runs SatNOGS stations?
- Stations are built and operated by volunteers around the world. The project publishes open hardware and software designs so that people can build their own ground station and connect it to the shared network.
- What does the frequency tell me?
- It is the downlink frequency of the observation, recorded in hertz. Divide by one million to get megahertz, so 401140000 Hz is 401.14 MHz.