Important bug-fix for SatNOGS Network stations with version >2.0.0

SatNOGS
1

Hello all,

We’ve discovered a bug that may affect some of stations and it is a result of station are in version 2.0.0 or above and they are configured with a non UTC timezone.

This bug affects the timestamp that marks the demodulated data send to Network observations by the station, as it uses the local time instead of UTC time.

Stations (owners) that are affected will get an email from us as soon as we have finished the related analysis, however you can update your stations and check that you use UTC timezone to make sure that you are not affected.

How to fix the issues:

  1. If you use the default setup, you can update to the fixed version (of satnogs-flowgraphs package) by running: satnogs-setup --install --no-config
    In case you run a custom version, make sure you run the latest released version of satnogs-flowgraphs which is 2.4
  2. Additionally or in case you can not update your station, please make sure that the timezone set in your station is UTC. You can check any of the three guides below (the first two for RPi and the 3rd for generic linux system) that will guide you on how to check and change your timezone, you will just need to find UTC timezone which usually is under “other options” or “ETC/UTC” etc:

There is also a recent hotfix release in Network which from now on will not accept frames with wrong timezone timestamps and will return an error with explaining the issue.

For the already submitted frames with wrong timezones, there will be some actions for fixing them in Network, DB and Dashboards, however due to the amount of them and some other prioritized tasks it may take from some days to some weeks to be completed.

If you have any additional questions or any issues, let us know either by replying on this post or by get in touch with us in our chat room in matrix.org.

6 Likes
SatNOGS received timestamps have strange precise behaviour
Wrong Packet Timestamps in Database/Dashboard
3

Using a manual satnogs client install with my own docker-compose.yml

I forced an image pull to get the updated satnogs-flowgraphs

Inside the SatNOGS client compose directory docker compose down && docker compose pull && docker compose up

ii  satnogs-flowgraphs                      2.4-1                          all          SatNOGS GNU Radio Flowgraphs

Jan | PE0SAT

1 Like
4

got error similiar with this in satno log:
satnogs_client_1 | ERROR satnogsclient.scheduler.tasks Upload of data_13835395_2026-04-17T15-45-42_g0 for observation 13835395 failed, response status code: 400

maybe caused by satno bug, i try to update my station to latest satnogs_client, but error still same.

image
image570×153 9.45 KB

the submitted frames timezones is not wrong. and my groundstation time in utc.

examples:

$ cat data_13835395_2026-04-17T15-45-42_g0
{"decoder_name": "gr-satellites", "pdu": "pGSCnIxAYKaGZGZiaGMA8EZCAgABABkACwD/fyEa8Q6dVeJpz7YkAGAJAAAoAFAeASHtBAABADAABwAJAAcAAQABAAAAVP8AADMAlgAAACkAfQMmAzIDfQMAwAIAgB50wCQAXm65WtcU"}

$ cat data_13838410_2026-04-18T05-45-16
{
    "decoder_crc_valid": true,
    "decoder_name": "ax25",
    "decoder_version": "1.3",
    "pdu": "iqaOpmBi4IKEhoiKjOED8DoRATNFBgFGAAE7wAAAAAAJCh1AAAAAQBMhHUAofqw+Gy/dPe2evD4iIgAAAAAAAAAAAAAAwDNEAQAAAAAAAAA=",
    "sample_cnt": 708,
    "sample_start": 668777,
    "time": "2026-04-18T05:45:16.306775Z"
}
5

Issue

Issue is now fixed, was due to a typo. No need to do anything further. Thanks for reporting it.

1 Like
6

Affected stations have been notified by email.

However if you didn’t get any, make sure you have the latest update and/or you time is set to UTC.

2 Likes
7

Hi, tried updating my station 3024, but I don’t get the correct version.

I ran:

satnogs-setup --install --no-config

A couple of times. But see 2.1.1 reported in Network.

I get

ii  satnogs-flowgraphs                      2.2-1                          all          SatNOGS GNU Radio Flowgraphs

Which is not the expected 2.4.

8

try check images list with this command:
sudo docker images

1 Like
9

Hello,

Indeed, the software was not updated! We caught another bug in which we missed bumping a version. It should be fixed now. Please retry and sorry for the inconvenience.

Cheers!

3 Likes
10

Thanks for fixing! I have updated the station using the instructions of Fredy. And now it shows 2.1.2 and the correct flowgraphs version.

Will the owners of the affected station be informed by email again?

3 Likes
11

Given the short time between the fix and the sent emails, would not justify a new email (I would like to avoid spamming). However even if they performed the steps they now going to use UTC time so the problem will be fixed either if they have an updated flowgraph or not.

Also the thread here was linked in the email so they probably will see the discussion above.

1 Like
12

Can someone clarify explicitly what range of version numbers this affects? I think it’s fixed in the latest version of the client, right?

As a satellite operator, we’ll need to filter out any data from stations that are impacted by this bug for any operations that require precise timing (e.g., orbit determination, attitude control logging, etc.).