Beacon (Bn,Bns)

A fixed aid to navigation that marks a position, hazard, boundary or route.

A beacon may stand on land, a pile, rock or the seabed and can carry a daymark, light, topmark, sound signal, radar reflector or racon. Its charted position and characteristics allow mariners to identify it and use it for navigation. Unlike a buoy, a beacon is fixed rather than floating. Electronic transmitters are also sometimes called beacons, but their purpose and reliability differ; aids to navigation supplement rather than replace an appropriate chart, position check and lookout.