Radio beacon

Not to be confused with Radar beacon.

In navigation, a radio beacon or radiobeacon is a kind of beacon, a device that marks a fixed location and allows direction-finding equipment to find relative bearing. It is a fixed-position radio transmitter which radiates radio waves which are received by navigation instruments on ships, aircraft or vehicles.

The beacon transmits a continuous or periodic radio signal on a specified radio frequency containing limited information (for example, its identification or location). Occasionally, the beacon's transmission includes other information, such as telemetric or meteorological data.

Radio beacons have many applications, including air and sea navigation, propagation research, robotic mapping, radio-frequency identification (RFID), and indoor navigation, as with real-time locating systems (RTLS) like Syledis or simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM).

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