Radar beacon

Their use for purposes other than aids to navigation is prohibited, and they are used to mark: In other parts of the world they are also used to indicate: Their characteristics are defined in the ITU-R Recommendation M.824, Technical Parameters of Radar Beacons (RACONS).

Modern racons are frequency-agile; they have a wide-band receiver that detects the incoming radar pulse, tunes the transmitter and responds with a 25 microsecond long signal within 700 nanoseconds.

To avoid the response masking important radar targets behind the beacon, racons only operate for part of the time.

An opportunity for practical testing of the concept in 2011 is being considered in the EfficienSea project,[9] partly financed by the Baltic Sea Region Programme[10] and coordinated by the Danish Maritime Safety Administration.

This could either be derived from an associated AIS signal representing the same object with the same identifier, or potentially in the future from information contained in a nautical publication, such as an electronic navigational chart in the emerging S-100 format.